Ferns for Window Gardeners. 99 



Give them always good drainage, and soil composed 

 of equal parts of peat-earth, loam, leaf-mould, and 

 silver sand, with a few small lumps of sand or broken 

 brick amongst the soil, which helps to keep it open, 

 giving the water a better chance of percolating freely 

 away, and thus giving the soil less chance of becoming 

 sodden or sour. After potting stand them in the shade 

 for two days or so till they recover their wonted fresh- 

 ness. We wiU. notice the most suitable ferns first ; 

 the large-growing kinds we will notice briefly 

 afterwards. 



Asplenium viride, or green spleenwort, is an elegant 

 little evergreen tufted fern, the fronds varying from two 

 to eight inches in length, supported on short dark- 

 coloured stems or stipes, the rachis or midrib entirely 

 green throughout. The pinnse or divisions of the frond 

 are very small, and ranged nearly opposite to each 

 other, attached to the rachis by little stalks of their 

 own. The pinnse being distant from each other, and 

 gradually lessening towards the point, give the fronds 

 a narrow, elegant appearance. 



It is a pretty little fern for pot culture or the shady 

 moist parts of rockwork. It requires good drainage 

 and protection from the hot summer sun. 



Asplenium Trichomanes, or the common maiden hair 

 spleenwort, is very like A. viride, and often mistaken 

 for it. It is easily distinguished from A. viride, how- 

 ever, by the fronds having purplish-black stipes or 

 stems and rachis instead of green, the pinnse of the 

 fronds being of a deeper green, rounder in form, and 

 placed with greater regularity along the rachis or mid- 



