142 FERiVS IN THEIR HOMES AND OURS. 



a tight board fence, and delighted a neighbor, who, 

 thinking it something planted and forgotten, could 

 not' recall to mind where she had obtained so 

 charming a fern. Ferns of the habit of the 

 StnUhiopteris are readily removed at almost any 

 time. The principal roots are near the crown, 

 which can be dug up with a ball of earth around 

 it, and cut free of the long running stem. 



Of course it will be seen that it will be useless 

 to divide any of those ferns which, like most 

 AspidiiLms and Tree-Ferns, produce their fronds 

 from a sinsfle crown, and do not form undero-round 

 stems. To increase our number of these, we 

 must depend upon raising the plants from spores. 

 Yet many species, which apparently spring thus 

 from crowns, are in the habit of increasing the 

 number of these crowns around the first. This is 

 only another form of the underground stem, al- 

 though here it is extremely short. Plants of this 

 description, Scolopendrium vidgare^ ?>omQ Aspidmms 

 and AspleniiLins, and the smaller BlecJimims, may 

 be laid down on their sides, cut through with the 

 trowel or knife, and treated as before recommended. 

 Some ferns move away from the place at which they 

 started, as does our common garden Solomon's-seal, 

 by the stem of the last year decaying as the new 

 stem grows forward. Potted ferns of this habit 

 will in a few years be found on one side of the pot ; 

 or perhaps, if in a very large pot, the fronds will 



