CHAPTER VI. 



FERNERIES OUT OF DOORS. 



T is surprising to how limited an extent 

 our native ferns have been cultivated, 

 even by those who possess the greatest 

 advantages for so doing. Time and money enough 

 have continually been spent on horticultural fan- 

 cies or fashions. Right-and-left or symmetrical 

 effects have been attempted with evergreens and 

 other shrubs trimmed into spires and domes, where 

 every twig which dared attempt to be graceful was 

 lopped off, and thrown on the brush-heap. Per- 

 sistent efforts have been made year after year to 

 grow sun-loving plants in the shade, that they 

 might form a screen for some ugly fence or build- 

 ing. Such attempts are failures, as they deserve 

 to be, and as, indeed, all the fantastic tricks of 

 gardening are, when Nature has her way. It may 

 be in place to give the details of an experiment 

 of a different kind, successfully tried by the writer 

 of this little book. 



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