124 The Fern Garden. 



CHAPTER XV. 



GOLD AND SILVER FERNS. 



fONE of the so-called gold and silver ferns are 

 adapted for beginners. They are so superbly 

 beautiful that people altogether unaccustomed 

 to ferns buy them and put them in greenhouses, sup- 

 posing that watering now and then is all the care they 

 want, and in the course of a month or so the plants die, 

 and an absurd inference is drawn from the occurrence 

 that ferns in general are impossible things. It is quite 

 certain that a very large number of maidenhair ferns 

 are killed by ladies who pretend to love ferns and really 

 have no real care for them at all ; but probably there 

 are more gymnogrammas killed through absurd treat- 

 ment than any other class of ferns whatever. Yet they 

 require but little more care than most others; their 

 peculiarity is that if that care is denied them they die 

 outright; whereas many other kinds survive neglect 

 and ill-treatment, and regain their cheerful looks " in 

 no time " if proper treatment is resorted to. 



If we could repeat in an intensified form all the 

 cautions that have been given in this work up to this 

 point we should have a practical code for the cultivation 

 of gold and silver ferns. Instead of attempting that, I 



