Tlie Fern House. 39 



they axe such lovely inmates of a cool fernery that you 

 cannot do without them. 



During the summer the roof must be shaded with 

 thin " scrim" or " tiffany/' or a smear of whitewash. 

 At all events, it will never do to allow powerful sun- 

 shine to shrivel up the tender growth and change the 

 glistening green to dingy brown, as it will do very soon 

 if there is no shading used. 



A very small amount of ventilation will be required 

 if the house faces north, as it should do. A fern house 

 in a hot southern exposure would need abundance of 

 air, heavy shading and extra help from the garden 

 engine from the 1st of May to the 19th of September. 

 After the last-mentioned date it might be left alone for 

 ever, for one season's struggle against overwhelming 

 odds ought to be enough for anybody. Choose or 

 make a shady place for your house, and then see that, 

 as the rockery is built up, there is a good body of earth 

 for the ferns to root into. 



Constant attention will be requisite to keep the fern- 

 house as beautiful as it should be. Dead fronds must 

 be removed without injury to the young fronds that 

 are rising ; some ferns will need more water than others, 

 and in the height of summer the floor must be wetted 

 daily to cause humidity of the atmosphere. 



The following ferns have prospered in the house 

 during the past twelve years, all of them having been at 

 times exposed to a few (say half a dozen) degrees of 

 frost. It must be borne in mind that they can better 

 endure frost if planted out than in pots. 



