372 MY GARDEN. 



The more delicate varieties of lady-ferns fringe the path, associated 

 with that delightful plant the sweet-scented gale ; and here Blechnum 

 boreale also abounds. 



My Fern Glen has given me so much pleasure, that I strongly 

 advise everyone who has a waste piece of land near his garden to make 

 a fern glen. It will be a pastime in the winter evenings to design it ; 

 the construction of it — the transforming of the ideal conception of the 

 mind into a living reality — will afford much pleasure ; many a country 

 trip in the woods will be required to furnish it ; and when furnished 

 it will afford a spot for contemplation and enjoyment, in which the 

 designer may fancy that the robins, warblers, and nightingales, which 

 never fail to dwell there, are pouring forth their gratitude for the 

 construction of such a delightful retreat. 



My Valley of Ferns is another spot in which I greatly delight. It 

 has a stream through the centre, and it is well surrounded by trees. 

 Here two or three varieties of male ferns and of polystichums attain 

 their highest perfection. The magnificent struthiopteris raises its 

 graceful and delicate fronds in the early spring, and shows its finely- 

 coloured foliage when dying down in the early autumn. 



In the heat of summer the beauty of a great mass of ferny foliage, 

 such as this place affords, cannot be surpassed. The success of this 

 valley of ferns app.ears to be due to the protection afforded from cold 

 winds by surrounding tr^es, whilst the plants themselves luxuriate 

 under light and sunshine, with free exposure to air without draught. 



Near the Valley of Ferns we have a mass of artificial wall, on which 

 wall ferns flourish, especially the Adiantum Ruta-muraria,\A. ger- 

 manicum, and A. septentrionale ; and here Ceterach grows as well as I 

 have seen it in Italy. We have also a cave for cave ferns, but I have 

 failed at this spot in growing either the Irish, Tunbridge, Wilson's 

 filmy ferns, or the Todea pellucida. Near the cave, the rare Cystopteris 

 montmia grows on a bank. 



There is a spot devoted to Exotic ferns. There the North American 

 ferns flourish, and live through the severest winters. The Lomaria 

 chilensis is a grand fern, which never loses its leaves except in the 



