Cultivation of Rock Ferns. 21 



dry and open position, and will do well in a mixture of 

 two thirds broken bricks and chalk, and one third 

 sandy peat. Stagnant moisture will be speedy death 

 to this fern, but it must have. daily sprinklings while 

 growing to promote free growth. 



A. septentrionale, the forked spleenwort, should always 

 be grown in an elevated position for the sake of the 

 protection thereby afforded it against slugs and wood- 

 lice, which rarely get into the higher parts of mural 

 ferneries. Being very small, it may be easily lost when 

 planted on banks or level ground; but in a suitable 

 pocket in a sheltered nook in a wall or ruin, it makes 

 a very pretty and interesting patch. 



Asplenium trichomanes, the common maidenhair 

 spleenwort, and A. virides, the green spleenwort, are 

 superb wall ferns, and in fact they rarely do well 

 under cultivation except when planted out in an 

 elevated and well-drained positipn. The soil should be 

 equal parts sandy peat, yellow loam, and broken bricks, 

 and the plants should be planted firmly, with their 

 crowns sbghtly above the surface. 



Ceterach officinarum, the scale fern, is essentially a 

 wall or rock fern, and a very beautiful and interesting 

 species. Confinement and damp are most prejudicial 

 to this fern, and when planted on a rockery under glass 

 the most airy position safe against drip should be chosen. 

 Any good sandy soil will suit it. 



Cystopteris montana, the mountain bladder fern, re- 

 quires peculiar care. Select for it a position thoroughly 

 sheltered and shaded, and prepare for it a station with 

 a stratum of broken bricks for drainage, and over that 



