How to form an Outdoor Fernery. 1 1 



CHAPTER III. 



HOW TO FORM AN OUTDOOR FERNERY. 



|0 keep up your interest in the subject, make a 

 fernery at the very outset, even if you do not 

 know the names of half a dozen ferns. If 

 you cannot go collecting you may he able to dip into 

 the tempting basket of the itinerant fern vendor, who 

 is sure to be able to supply you with the Male fern, 

 or Lastrea Filix mas, which is the hardiest of all, and 

 will grow almost anywhere; the Lady fern, or. Athyrium 

 Filix fcemina ; the Hard fern, or Blechnum spicant; and 

 the Hartstongue fern, or Scolopendrium vulgare. With 

 these four you can make a good beginning. It is 

 usual to construct the outdoor fernery of some sort of 

 "rockwork," and for two good reasons, first, because 

 the forms and hues of ferns are more effectually dis- 

 played when their bright green tufts rise out of grey 

 stones or dark burrs from the brick kiln; second, 

 because they thrive better, when planted in gardens, if 

 their roots are protected from excessive evaporation by 

 the covering of the soil with stones and vitreous masses. 

 Many a tiny fernery do I see in my travels placed at 

 the entrances to country villas and cottages, where I 

 should never think of placing them, yet they look 

 quiet and pleasing, and suggest to all passers by that 



