70 The Fern Garden. 



from these curious leafy things little fern fronds mil 

 rise, and you will know thereby that you did not sow 

 the seed in vain. 



Be in no hurry to disturb the little plants. More and 

 more will appear; they will crowd and jostle one another, 

 and they will form a sort of microscopic forest, and 

 very likely will appear to be very different in form to 

 the frond from which the seed was taken, for they do 

 not usually acquire their true characters until they 

 have made some advance. The time will come at last 

 to give them more room, but before you disturb them 

 remove the bell-glass, and habituate them to the enjoy- 

 ment of more air and light than they had in their 

 earliest infancy. I usually allow seedlings to remain a 

 whole year in the seed pans, and then pot them off, and 

 this plan will be found a safe and good one for general 

 adoption. 



The process of potting consists in lifting each little 

 plant with its tuft of roots unhurt into a very small 

 pot nearly filled with a mixture of fine peat and sand, 

 and then covering its roots with the same material, and 

 tucking it in comfortably. Shut them up in a frame 

 in a greenhouse, or put them close together under large 

 bell-glasses ; by some means or other keep them com- 

 paratively warm and shaded ; give gentle sprinklings or 

 rather dewings over their leaves, and but little water 

 to the roots, and they will soon grow and become 

 bonny little plants. 



In a rather dark and damp corner of one of my 

 greenhouses I have a glass frame on a stand which is 

 used expressly as a nursery for seedling ferns. You 



