542 



THE BOOK OF GARDENING. 



before using ; it is well known that pots fresh from the kiln 

 absorb a great quantity of water, and when their pores are not 

 previously filled, it very frequently happens that the first two 

 or three waterings, instead of being beneficial to the plants, only 

 serve to soak the pots, while the balls of soil which the .latter 

 contain become so dry that it is often most difficult afterwards 

 to get them into a moist condition. Great care must always be 



taken that the 

 plants when re- 

 potted are suffi- 

 ciently moist at 

 the roots, which 

 organs are exceed- 

 ingly sensitive to 

 even a temporary 

 absence of mois- 

 ture. When a 

 Fern has suffered 

 from want of 

 water at the roots, 

 the effect is shown 

 by the shrivelling 

 of the fronds, the 

 older ones being 

 usually affected 

 before the young 

 growths. This is 

 a peculiarity well 

 worthy of special 

 notice ; for while 

 in the case of 

 most other plants, 

 either of a herba- 

 ceous or of a 

 woody texture, the 

 temporary flag- 

 ging of the foliage 

 is efficiently reme- 

 died by an ordi- 

 nary watering, or, at the most, by a thorough soaking of 

 the roots, such treatment has no apparent effect on the roots 

 of most Ferns, and very few indeed are the species whose 

 fronds, having once flagged, regain their elasticity by the appli- 

 cation of water at the roots or over the foliage; the Nothochlaena 

 and the Cheilanthes (Cheilanthes farinosa, Fig. 340) being the 

 Ferns which show the least the effects of drought at the roots. 



In growing Ferns in pots it will be found greatly beneficial to 

 the plants that these should stand on a solid, cool, moist bottom, 



Fig. 340.— Cheilanthes farinosa. 



