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about our dwellings) as the ferns. With the minimum of care in 

 transplanting, times and seasons are alike to them. The best 

 time for the work is of course in early spring or late autumn for 

 then the plants are dormant and appear scarcely to notice their 

 removal ; but if one does not come upon the specimens he wants 

 until mid-summer, he may still take them, in this case cutting off 

 the fronds and taking care that the rootlets do not get dry, by 

 wrapping them in wet cloths or sphagnum moss. He may even 

 retain the fronds, provided he secures most of the roots and is 

 not too dilatory in getting his specimens into their new location ; 

 but if it will be a day or so before they can be planted, he had 

 better remove the fronds. In the matter of growth the ferns are 

 divided into two divisions. One of these produces fronds all sum- 

 mer and the other sends up fronds only in spring. The first, 

 usually characterized by slender creeping rootstocks, will soon 

 have a new crop of fronds to replace those cut off. The others 

 have shorter, thicker rootstocks and less readily respond to calls 

 for more fronds, but may be depended upon to ultimately pro- 

 duce them. 



The chief requisite of ferns is shade. This most species must 

 have or they will become yellow, dwarfed and of no pride to 

 their owner. Moisture, too, they delight in, but only the water 

 loving species, like the cinnamon, chain and sensitive ferns, will 

 thrive in poorly drained locations. The soil should be light and 

 porous and as near like that in their chosen haunts as possible; 

 but as such soil conditions are not usually to be found in town 

 and city gardens, a good way to plant the ferns is to excavate a 

 hole considerably larger than the roots of the fern to be planted 

 and fill this hole with soil from the woods. The fern will grow 

 in it as other plants grow in a flower pot. I have owned a thrifty 

 fern garden planted in this way, the original soil being a sterile 

 clay and gravel from the bottom of a cellar. 



Whether or not one shall have a fern garden, in which all the 

 ferns are arranged, or whether the species shall be planted here 

 and there about the grounds, depends upon individual taste. I 

 am inclined to think that the latter is preferable. As striking 

 and handsome as most species are, there are many that, attractive 

 in themselves, lose by being brought too closely into competition 



