12 The Fern Garden. 



those who planted them did their best to vindicate the 

 quiet beauties of God's great harvest, knowing that for 

 more demonstrative forms of vegetable splendour vindi- 

 cation was unnecessary. "When little ferneries like 

 these are constructed, only the commonest and most 

 robust-growing ferns should be planted in them. Gene- 

 rally speaking, the common soil of the place will do, but 

 if a quantity of leaf mould or cocoa-nut fibre can be 

 mixed with it the better. If there is any doubt about 

 the soil of the place being suitable, get some sandy or 

 peaty earth from a common where ferns and heather 

 are found in plenty, and have enough to raise the 

 position above the general level, then cover it with 

 stones or burrs, and plant the ferns between. There 

 are sorts well adapted for this simplest form of fernery, 

 namely, the four just named, as likely to be found in 

 the fern dealer's basket, and the following : — the 

 Bracken or Brake, Pteris aquilina, the Broad Prickly 

 Buckler fern, Lastrea dilatata, the royal Osmund, Os- 

 munda regalis, the common Polypody, Polypodium vul- 

 gare, the Common Shield fern, Polystichum aculeatum. 

 Many more may be added if the soil is a mellow, friable 

 yellow loam, with plenty of sand in it, but it will be 

 well to get a little used to ferns before launching out 

 into grand speculations. When you have had some 

 practice in this humble way, and have, perhaps, suc- 

 ceeded in growing a few ferns in pots in a frame or in 

 a fern case in the drawing-room, you will become am- 

 bitious, and resolve on having a grand fernery, with, 

 perhaps, a model of a ruin for the main feature of the 

 scheme. 



