TO COLLECT FERNS FOR CULTIVATION. 51 



good light soil, whether out of doors or in the 

 fernery, is best. At first, nearly all the fronds will 

 lie quite prostrate on the ground ; but if they are 

 frequently sprinkled on both sides, and their roots 

 kept only damp, the plants will establish them- 

 selves, and reward the pains bestowed upon them 

 by a fine healthy growth the very next season. 

 In the time intervening, the pressed fronds can 

 be examined and named ; and if the numbers tied 

 to each package are marked on little sticks, and 

 placed with the roots, we shall know what our 

 plants are, and what to expect of each root before 

 it grows at all. 



Our first surprise the next spring will be, when 

 on some walk we discover large quantities of 

 some fern, which we had spared no pains the sum- 

 mer before to bring from two hundred or five hun- 

 dred miles away, growing within a mile of our 

 own door. This occurs to every one who begins 

 fern-collecting away from home ; but the trans- 

 planted specimens, though they lose thus their 

 rarity, remain as perpetual remembrancers of our 

 first delight and interest in them. A lady living 

 not a thousand miles from Boston brought from 

 Vermont a few starved plants of Maidenhair {Adi- 

 antuni pedatti7n), and showed them to the writer 

 with the greatest satisfaction ; but what was her 

 surprise when she learned that within a few rods 

 of her old family home, where she was wont to 



