285 



" .For Banquo's issue have I 'filed my mind, 

 For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered, 

 Put rancours in the vessel of my peace 

 Only for them, and mine eternal jewel, 

 Given o'er to th' common enemy of man." 

 wailed our CO. with his customary Cassandra -like 

 lugubriosity. 



Our stoker excommunicated the rats with a vigour and 

 impartiality worthy of a Grand Inquisitor. We heard 

 muttered maledictions in which the rodents' sanguinary 

 fluids and visual organs were mysteriously involved. His 

 peroration, however, was lucid, fluent and forcible, but is 

 unfortunately unfit for reproduction, being too redolent of 

 the sulphurous atmosphere and lurid light of the stokehole, 

 to which haven of refuge we gently assisted him. 



H. Stansfield. 



FERNERY CONSTRUCTION AND FERN 

 CULTURE. 



Mr. H. Stansfield's article on the above subject contains 

 some strange and remarkable, not to say "Bolshevik" 

 philosophy. Doubtless it will appeal to Fern cultivators 

 in different degrees. 



Apart, however, from his extreme views — for such they 

 will appear to many — his style is bold and fascinating. 

 Personally I am much obliged to him, for I think many of 

 us may be adhering too closely to what he would call our 

 " antiquated " methods. Still there are one or two things 

 which seem to require some further explanation. 



That Ferns will grow under extreme conditions naturally, 

 I have often noted; but shade and moisture doubtless 



