18 The Fern Garden. 



of good mellow loam will scarcely want cultivating. 

 Pretty well the best you can do for them is to leave 

 them alone. But those elevated on pinnacles and in 

 other positions where they are likely to get very dry 

 must have the aid of water, not only in summer but in 

 winter, also on every occasion when dry weather prevails 

 for any length of time. Many plants so situated perish 

 by desiccation during the prevalence of east winds in 

 March, when because the weather is cold and they are 

 not growing, the cultivator is apt to think water un- 

 necessary ; or rather he is apt not to think about the 

 ferns or the water at all. 



Small-growing delicate habited ferns that are in ex- 

 posed positions on rockeries should have protection 

 during severe frost. A flower-pot may be inverted 

 over them or a little clean hay may be placed over 

 their crowns and kept from blowing away by means of 

 a few pegs, or cocoa-nut fibre or sand may be heaped 

 up round and over them, to be taken away of course 

 when the crowns begin to throw up new fronds in 

 spring. Always wait for mild moist weather to remove 

 such protection, for if the swelling crown is suddenly 

 exposed to a cutting east wind, it may shrivel and 

 perish, instead of throwing up its emerald tassels in 

 token of the return of the tender spring. 



Thus far we have considered outdoor ferneries as 

 superstructures. "We might have regarded them as 

 substructures. At all events, I should like for an old 

 quarry to become mine some day that I might make a 

 fernery of it ; and perhaps lacking a quarry, I may be 

 tempted to throw myself into a gravel pit, and by a 

 little hard work and patience make a fern' garden of it. 



