I3 ] 



extent the attractiveness of a collection through the dead 

 season of the year. 



With regard to the former, the fact that the fronds fade 

 and shrivel in the autumn is not infrequently regarded as a 

 sign of actual death through some mysterious cause, the 

 persistent greenness of the other species helping this con- 

 clusion. It is, however, a purely natural feature, and we 

 see precisely the same phenomena in our deciduous and 

 evergreen trees. Even to those, however, who recognise 

 this fact, there is a great danger that the seemingly empty 

 pots, so far as visible life is concerned, may be neglected 

 during the long winter months as regards the all-essential 

 point of watering. 



If we study such ferns in their native habitats we shall 

 find that during the winter they exist under the moistest 

 possible conditions, being more or less buried in the wet 

 debris of their own fronds and dead leaves from other 

 sources and with the soil thoroughly saturated. Hence 

 we may learn that even in their dormant condition, the 

 roots should never get dry, and thus that occasional water- 

 ing is essential. If the room occupied by the pots be 

 needed for other purposes, they can, owing to the thorough 

 hardiness of the ferns, be buried in soil outside or packed 

 in cold frames until the early spring when new growth 

 commences. These remarks apply to the Lady Ferns, Las- 

 trea filix-mas, L. Montana, L. propinqua, and L. thelyptevis, 

 the Royal Fern, the Bladder Ferns, the Oak and Beech and 

 Limestone Polypodies, and the Bracken, the fronds of all 

 of which disappear by November. 



The evergreen species are far more numerous, and con- 

 sist of the Shield Ferns, all the Spleenworts, the Harts- 

 tongue, Blechnum, Lastyea cemula, the common Polypody 

 and the filmy ferns, to which may be added, under glass, 

 the hard Male Fern (L. pseudo-mas), and with a little coaxing 

 byway of support, the Broad Buckler Fern, which, with its 



