FERNS AND WILD FLOWERS 85 



shuttlecocks. The Osmunda is a little withered, but in 

 its golden yellow stage is very lovely." The present 

 prevailing fashion of a lingering autumn and mild 

 December leaves the Fern-bank beautiful through October, 

 November, and the months that follow, till the very hard 

 frosts come, which nowadays is generally not till the days 

 have begun to lengthen. In sheltered corners many plants 

 are green the whole year round. So things go on till 

 January, when some few heads are lying low, but even 

 then the bank is quaintly pretty. February is, I admit, 

 the least attractive month for the Ferns themselves, but 

 by that time the little lowly flowers that grow among 

 them are coming up, and a careful look will show how 

 fast the fronds are spreading and thickening amid the 

 Wood-violets' gentle blue and the pale stars of the 

 Primrose. May is here the most amusing month ; in 

 their growing-up stage Ferns are funnier than schoolboys, 

 and more uncouth. How tall and lanky is this pale 

 Osmunda ; he has shot up too quickly, and there is 

 nothing but a little bullet head at the top of every 

 attenuated stalk. He bends this backwards, the colour 

 changes, and lo ! the round ball opens into the splendour 

 of branching leaves. Warm rain of a day or two will 

 do this and many another miracle will it work ; therolled- 

 up, wriggling snakes and viperlings that hid away in white 

 and woolly fleeces, and seemed so frightened of coming 

 out too soon, one by one now show themselves to be the 

 Scolopendrimus, Aspleniums, Polypodiums and Poly- 

 stichums that were so beautiful last July — it would really 

 be mean to remind them in summer-time of how they 

 looked while yet unfledged. 



The great charm of a fernery, well kept and long- 

 established, is now forgotten by most, for it is seldom 

 seen. What we do see in many a London and suburban 

 garden is the extinct or neglected fernery, an arid spot, 

 most likely under a tree or trees, which have drained 



