I20 FERA^S IN THEIR HOMES AND OURS. 



doubtedly the finest of the genus, and is an excel- 

 lent basket-fern. As , soon as the plant is well 

 established, the basket should be inverted, and 

 hung up in this position : therefore, in planting 

 the specimen to be thus treated, care must be 

 taken to have the contents of the basket firm. 

 These ferns are sometimes grown in especially- 

 constructed pots, which may be somewhat scoop- 

 shaped, and made to hang against a wall. P. 

 alcicorne will do very well in the living-room. PI. 

 20, Fig. I, is one of these ferns planted on the 

 inner side of a cocoanut-husk, where it grows 

 finely. 



A very good way to grow such ferns as Polypo- 

 diiLin vacciniifolimn, when it is not convenient to 

 have whole tree-trunks for them to climb over, 

 is to take the outside slab of a log, and nail to the 

 bottom of this a little shelf, on which may be wired 

 the pot containing the young plant. A slab about 

 three feet long and six inches wide will do. Plants 

 treated in this way will soon attach themselves to 

 the bark by their creeping stems, and, if often 

 sprinkled, will thrive. In the fern-houses of Hon. 

 J. W. Merrill of Cambridge, Mass., are many very 

 pretty arrangements of this sort. 



By the term " Climbing-Ferns " we might include 

 various species of Polypodium and other genera, 

 which climb by means of their stems ; which, as 

 they grow, attach themselves by their fine roots — 



