CULTIVATION. 17 
miniature forest imaginable—little moss-covered cliffs and 
dells, with fragments of decayed stumps overgrown with 
trailing lycopods and partridge-berries. There is no rule 
for arranging or growing ferns, any more than in the case 
of flowering-plants. In the case they do not require to be 
watered often, since very little evaporation is going on, just 
as in a damp and shaded wood. Some ferns are better 
suited for this sort of culture than others. In describing 
the species special attention will be called to this subject. - 
Nearly all our native ferns can be successfully cultivated 
in the open air in a city garden, provided it is kept moist 
and well shaded. A northern aspect is better than any 
other; but, without being well sheltered, the fronds will be 
apt to get broken and tangled, and become less graceful 
than in their native woods. A gentleman in the city of 
Louisville has been very successful in the cultivation of 
ferns in the open air. He has two circular mounds com- 
posed chiefly of leaf-mold from the woods. With the 
exception of some of the rock-ferns, he has growing in 
these mounds nearly all the ferns indigenous to the State. 
From early spring till late autumn these mounds present a 
scene of the most luxuriant vegetation. The graceful 
Lady Fern waves its feathery fronds, entangled with the 
veil-like form of the Maiden-hair; the Shield Ferns, the 
Spleenworts, the Osmundas, and the Bladder Ferns all grow 
most luxuriantly. The Sensitive Fern seems to be in its 
special paradise, with abundance of moisture and good, 
rich soil. Along with the ferns, making the spot still more 
beautiful, are a great many of our common wild flowers— 
the hepatica, the spring beauty, the celandine poppy, the 
the shooting-star, the stellaris, the mertensia, and a dozen 
others, rivaling in sweetness and beauty the more preten- 
tious products of the greenhouses. 
2 
