Cultivation of Greenhouse and Stove Ferns. 95 



CHAPTER XII. 



CULTIVATION OF GREENHOUSE AND STOVE FERNS. 



RACTICALLY the only difference in the man- 

 agement of the ferns of the greenhouse and 

 the stove from those of the frame or cool fern- 

 house consists in the increase of temperature propor- 

 tioned to the character of the climates in which green- 

 house and stove ferns are found growing wild. Various 

 as are the climates and conditions in which ferns thrive 

 on different parts of the earth's surface, they all be- 

 come amenable to conditions nearly uniform when 

 subjected to cultivation. Give the most delicate fern of 

 the tropics treatment similar to what is advised for our 

 native ferns, but with a higher temperature at every 

 season of the year, and the chances are full ten to one 

 that it will succeed perfectly. But undoubtedly it 

 requires some judgment to assimilate conditions in 

 the midst of which there occurs this important difference 

 of temperature, and so we cannot expect to dispose of 

 the subject of this chapter in any offhand or very general 

 manner. However, we must beg the reader to recall 

 the main points of our advice to this extent, that for 

 outdoor, for frame, and for cool-house ferns, we have 

 constantly recommended the use of a granular and 



