FERNERIES. 375 



capillaire, a pleasant beverage drunk mixed with water in hot 

 weather. 



We have three British Filmy ferns. The Hymenophyllum Tun- 

 bridgense (fig. 863 I have found abundantly at Tunbridge Wells and 

 in Sussex, and have had other plants from the Dart Moor : this and the 

 H. Wilsoni (fig. 863 d), which is found in Devonshire and Scotland, both 

 grow well with me, but have to be planted in a particular manner. My plan 

 is to take the plant, place it on a bed of coarse sand with a little peat, and 

 sift fine dry sand between the fronds till it is completely embedded. 

 A watering-pot is then held five or six feet above the plant, so that 

 the water falls not only in quantity, but in considerable force, till 

 the whole of the sand is washed in. The plant is then covered with 

 a glass, and requires but little water. It grows out of doors perfectly 

 well under glass, but not unless so covered. I have had fine specimens, 

 which received the first prize both at the Botanic and Horticultural 

 Societies ; but the plants, after attaining a certain perfection, are 

 prone to die off. 



The Irish Fern {Trichomanes speciosuin) has never succeeded with 

 me out of doors without glass, but grows when it has that protec- 

 tion. There are several varieties of it, but I 

 have one which was found by Mrs. Abel in 

 Yorkshire, where it had not been seen for a 

 hundred years previously. I have figured one of 

 the fronds (fig. 864), which that lady herself 

 gathered, and which is interesting on that account, 

 but it gives a very poor idea of the beauty of 

 this species. This plant is growing vigorously 

 with me, and it also grows well in Mrs. Abel's 

 drawing-room. It has been found by Backhouse F'c- 864.-Kiliarney Fem. 

 and others in Wales, and it possibly exists in other parts of England 

 but its most remarkable habitat is Killarney, whence it is called 

 the Killarney Fern. Mr. Cooper Forster, who has a great love for 

 filmy ferns, has a magnificent plant, which grows over a flint 

 stone in his drawing-room in the centre of London. In 1871 



