ON CULTIVATING OUR FERNS 



By James H. Ferriss. 



Ambitious to grow all the American ferns in the Joliet 

 park I have made a summer trip to Colorado and two 

 winter excursions to western Texas, New Mexico and 

 Arizona, and I am going again. Members of our so- 

 ciety have given me generous assistance and the nursery- 

 men, pay or no pay, have been very kind. I have a soft 

 spot in my heart for a lot of these people I never 

 have seen and when ferns die or park commissioners 

 grumble I am cheered on by an assurance that I will 

 meet all of these good people over on that shore where 

 the ferns grow everlasting and so big the heathen cannot 

 pull them up. 



All but a very few of our American ferns, and a great 

 many others have seen the park alive. Alas, some are 

 now dead. The Canadian ferns give me as much trouble 

 to grow as the curiosities of the rocks and desert. I 

 have experienced help in the greenhouse, but other busi- 

 ness preventing my giving daily attention to the ferns 

 is a large factor in our failures. But there is something 

 in our soil, water or air, I fear, that makes trouble. At 

 least some kinds always remain stubborn; others have 

 a constant habit of petering out little by little, while 

 others never die. There always remains the hope how- 

 ever of discovering a situation that will pull these fail- 

 ures through the next time. Lygodium palmatum will 

 not grow at all but L. Japonicum thrives like a weed. 

 Ceratopteris does fairly well at the Missouri Botanical 

 Garden in rain water, but in our creek or well water it 

 declines to the end in six months. Schizaea, Polypodium 

 Swartmi, Cheilanthes Lindheimeri, Asplenium serratum, 

 A. pinnatifidimn , A. septentrionale, A. montanum, and 

 Woodsia alpina have never put out new fronds. 



