THE FERN GARDEN: 



HOW TO MAKE, KEEP, AND ENJOY IT ; 



OB, 



FERN CULTURE MADE EASY. 



CHAPTER I. 



FERNS IN GENERAL. 



HAVE a fine opportunity now for a dry 

 chapter. I hare a good mind to hang up a 

 tuft of straw to indicate that the way is 

 dangerous, and to warn the reader not to proceed a 

 line further. Ferns, my friends, belong to the sub- 

 kingdom of vegetables termed Cryptogamia, a sub- 

 kingdom so named because it is the custom of the 

 population to celebrate marriages in the dark, so that 

 it can scarcely be averred of them to a certainty that 

 they really marry at all. In this sub-kingdom there 

 are several large tribes, such as the mosses, the horse- 

 tails, the lichens and liver worts ; but the ferns or filices 

 are the most noble of all, associating with others freely, 

 but towering above them in apparent consciousness of 

 right to rule. 



