98 The Fern Garden. 



woodsia, scolopendrium, and selaginella, are pretty sure 

 to take to it readily, while in the most select spots, hy- 

 menophyllums, trichomanes, todeas, and maidenhairs, 

 will soon become established, and acquire a luxuriance 

 of growth without the least care, such as to make a 

 mere mockery of all our closed cases and bell-glasses, 

 and curious caves constructed expressly for the cultiva- 

 tion of these gems of the fern garden. 



There cannot be a doubt that the plan recommended 

 in Chapter VII for the cultivation of hardy ferns under 

 glass is the best also for greenhouse and stove ferns, 

 unless it be the desire of the cultivator to have the 

 whole or a part of the collection in pots, in which case, 

 of course, something in the nature of a stage or table 

 becomes necessary. A spacious fernery adapted for 

 ferns of all climates, and for the display of them under 

 circumstances which we may justly describe as natural, 

 forms one of the most valuable embellishments a gar- 

 den can boast — enjoyable at all seasons, and especially 

 so in winter, when rough weather forbids our seeking 

 open-air enjoyments, and when, perhaps, if weather 

 permitted, we should find but little in the garden or 

 the field to interest us. One of the best structures of 

 the kind I am acquainted with is in the garden of Alfred 

 Smee, Esq., Carshalton. The walls are formed of solid 

 banks of peat, which extend on either side of the plate 

 on which the rafters rest, so as to form borders within 

 and without. The "house maybe about eighty feet in 

 length, the banks on either side are varied in outline, 

 and there is in one spot a basin tenanted with gold fish, 

 and surrounded with ferns of peculiarly novel aspect, 



