How to form an Outdoor Fernery. 13 



Outdoor ferneries are usually formed of tree roots 

 and banks of earth, picturesquely disposed and planted 

 ■with ferns severally adapted to the sites and positions 

 the scheme affords. Where there are living trees on 

 or near the spot (and the shade of large trees is desir- 

 able), the use of roots is objectionable, because of the 

 quantities of fungi which are sure to be produced, the 

 mycelium from which may find its way among the 

 living roots and commit vast havoc. But even this 

 danger is worth risking sometimes in cases where roots 

 and butts are plentiful on the spot, and it is undesirable 

 to incur any great expense. The foundation of all 

 banks and earth-works for ferns should be good loam 

 or clay, into which many of the stronger-growing kinds 

 will send their roots when well established. But the 

 upper crust and the stuff for filling in between roots, 

 burrs, &c., should consist of half peat and half silky 

 yellow loam, or some mixture which nearly approxi- 

 mates in character to such a combination. Thus, good 

 loam with well-rotted cocoa-nut fibre, or loam mixed 

 with yellow leaf-mould and manure that has lain by three 

 or four years till rotted to powder. It is best to com- 

 plete the structure and fill in all the more important 

 places intended for soil before inserting any of the 

 plants, for the simple reason that the work must be 

 firm, the soil well rammed in, and the whole of the 

 scheme so substantial that there will be no fear of any 

 portion shrinking away afterwards, and leaving the 

 roots of the ferns without soil, or causing hollows and 

 crevices between the blocks and the banks into which 

 they are set. 



