270 



CASSELL'fe POPULAR GARDENING. 



is at any time available, the latter often thrives 

 admirably. So fine, indeed, are the ultimate divisions, 

 that it is difficult in non-technical language to give 

 a fairly correct idea of the beautiful and delicate 

 tracery of the fronds. 



0. aiiratum owes its name to the rich golden-yellow 

 colour of the membranous involucres and numerous 

 sori. It is a native of the Malayan Peninsula and 

 Islands, and also of the Himalayas, where it ascends 

 to elevations of 5,000 feet above sea-level. The 

 stout, smooth, straw-coloured or pale brown stipes 

 measure from six to twelve inches in. length, and the 

 ovate fronds a foot or more in length by about six 

 inches in breadth. 0. Japonicum is distributed 

 throughout Java, Japan, China, and the North of 

 India, where it ascends in Sikkim to elevations of 

 9,000 or 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. 

 This species is somewhat like the last in size and 

 general appearance, but the membranous involucres 

 are pale-coloured, and the sori are brown. 



Cultivation. — Both the species mentioned are of 

 neat tufted habit, and make excellent subjects for 

 cultivation in pots for cool house decoration, or for 

 l^lanting out in the fern-case. A mixture of peat 

 and sand with a little leaf-mould suits them 

 thoroughly, and well- drained pots only should be 

 used; good examples can be grown with but limited 

 root-room. 0, Japonicum is the hardier of the two, 

 and will even succeed in the open air in thoroughly 

 sheltered spots in favoured localities of the South and 

 South-west of England. 



GROUND OPERATIOlSrS. 



OF all athletic exercises, with perhaps the single 

 exception of cricket — and it is doubtful if that 

 is an exception — the very best is digging. Probably 

 every single muscle, vein, artery, and nerve in the 

 body is vigorously exercised in the process. There 

 is the weight of the spade, the power expended on 

 the thrust, the loosening force, the lifting weight, 

 the skilful and rapid inversion of the mass, the 

 throwing power, the levelling tact, calling and 

 keeping in vigorous exercise almost every function 

 and capacity alike of body and of mind : for digging 

 is a science as well as a practice, it needs thought 

 as much as physical strength, and, like most sorts 

 of what is called manual labour, it will be found 

 mostly to be good or bad according to the measure 

 of thought put into it. 



Every Man his own Bigger.— AVhy not, as 

 well as every man his own brewer, baker, lawyer, 



and what not ? The process is infinitely more 

 simple and far more sanitary than either of these, 

 and countless other things that every man is ad\'ised 

 to become, be, or do for himself in these days of 

 advice gratis ad libitum. 



There is no constitutional, no aid to digestion, 

 no cure for the blues, no receipt for a good night's 

 sleep, no quietus for excited brain or ruffled nerves, 

 to match half an hour at honest digging once or 

 twice a day. Most of the above evils are born of 

 mental strain, worry, anxiety, monotony of labour, 

 the dreary treadmill exertion of counter or desk, and 

 they fly like bats before the day- dawn, at sight, 

 sound, or touch of gleaming bright spade thi-ust into 

 the earth. Let the tired and the wearied, the di'oop- 

 ing, those almost ready to faint, borrow leave to dig 

 in their neighbours' gardens, if they can neither hii-e 

 nor purchase one of their own. 



But meanwhile, let all the fortunate possessors of 

 gardens hasten to do a whole or a part of the dig- 

 ging themselves. It is really the best work in the 

 garden. Not a few owners slave over cleaning, 

 dressing, watering it, and only have a man to do the 

 digging. This is beginning at the wrong end — set- 

 ting the labourer, in fact, to do the master's work. 

 Custom has reconciled society to this order. But 

 looking at it from a sanitar}- and business point of 

 view, it is nearly as bad as sending the porter to 

 the bank while the merchant sweeps the office. 

 Good digging is to the garden what the merchant's 

 skill and forethought are to his profits ; yet 

 honest digging has almost become the exception ; 

 a sort of shambling, shuffling inversion of the soU 

 the rule. And yet, properly understood, and skil- 

 fully practised, the former is more easy than the 

 latter. 



Ladies' Garden Tools. — Ladies are most 

 cruelly handicapped with these. The majority of 

 the prettily got-up sets for ladies are made of iron 

 only : pretty, very pretty, but villanously bad. In 

 fact, as a rule, they are not made for use, only to 

 look at. So soon as they come in contact with the 

 gi-ound, they either stick fast or get so coated with 

 soil, that it would need a man's strength to work 

 with them, small as they are. The same tools are 

 also used by boys ; and no grown-up man who has 

 ever had to work with ladies' or childi-en's spades 

 or other tools can wonder that, as a rule, they arc so 

 little used. 



The smaller the tools the better their quality must 

 be. This is only reasonable, as their very smallness 

 proves they are for those who are comparatively 

 weak; and the better the tool, be its size what it 

 may, the lighter it is to use. This is emphatically 

 true of spades. Hence small spades should be made 



