THE GARDEN BEAUTIFUL. 



*3 



iron fencing which became a clanger 

 round pasture fields. (The iron fences 

 along drives or in the foreground of good 

 prospects I have long ago done away 

 with.) The most difficult spots to plant 

 are in old woods, often of underwood 

 having ceased to be of any use or profit. 

 Planting choice little trees in such woods 

 is out ofthe question, so I havejust fenced 

 with iron an acre of such woodland 

 which had nothing left in it but stubs and 

 a few Birch and other trees of little value. 

 The iron fence is to be wired 3 h feet high , 

 and within is to be a plantation of the 

 Western Hemlock Spruce [Abies Mer- 

 tensiand) — a noble tree that suits our 

 country well — and with it a sprinkling 

 of Japanese Larch. This iron fencing is 

 so placed as to be hardly visible from the 

 rides near; it gives safety from animals 

 and other interlopers, and makes sure of 

 my trees while they need protection. 



In another wood I have enclosed 

 about two acres of ground and wired 

 it well to the top of the iron fence (as it 

 was a badly infested place), and that is 

 now being planted with young trees of 

 the Atlantic Cedar with a sprinkling of 

 the Numidian Spruce and the common 

 English Yew. These three trees I saw 

 growing together on the top of a moun- 

 tain in Algeria, perfectly happy in com- 

 pany, and with heaps of snow around 

 them ; this on the 3rd of May. Another 

 patch, where Oak failed owing to un- 

 suitable rocky soil, is to be fenced and 

 wired in the same safe and permanent 

 way for the Spruces of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and so in this way use is made 

 of what is too often ^an eyesore and a 

 danger. The association in bold plant- 



ing of trees that grow together in nature 

 cannot fail to be right in all way s . Wiring 

 against wooden stakes is not nearly so 

 effective as wired iron fencing, but is 

 efficient if well done, and for common 

 trees. * ** * 



A PARADISE OF FERNS. THE 

 FILMY FERNS IN JAMAICA. 



Jamaica is a hilly, or rather, mountainous 

 island. There is very little level ground, even 

 along the sea-coast. Everywhere the land be- 

 gins to rise almost at once, gradually ascend- 

 ing to the heights of the central chain of hills, 

 which, in the Blue Mountains, attain an eleva- 

 tion of more than 7,000 feet. There is thus 

 great variety of temperature and climate. In 

 the lowlands, the mean temperature is about 

 75 degrees at night, and about 85 degrees 

 during the day, but the heat is tempered by 

 both land and sea breezes. At Newcastle 

 (3,800 feet), the mean temperature of the 

 hottest month (July) is 68 degrees, and of the 

 coolest month (January) 61 degrees. As you 

 ascend still higher the mean temperature, of 

 course, proportionately falls, till you gain the 

 summit of the Blue Mountains, where frost 

 has been occasionally, but rarely, registered. 

 A large part of the surface of the island is 

 therefore free from the excessive tropical heat 

 under which the great majority of Ferns can- 

 not luxuriate. But Ferns demand something 

 more than moderately cool temperature, they 

 must have both shade and moisture. Shade 

 they receive in abundance from the bush or 

 scrub — one can hardly call it forest — that 

 clothes the hillsides, and is generally dense 

 enough to screen them from the direct rays of 

 the sun. There is no lack of moisture either. 

 Streams everywhere run down from the upper 

 regions to the sea, more than one hundred of 

 them in all. Then from these streams, and from 

 the ocean, the heat of the sun raises copious 

 vapours, which produce, as they ascend, clouds 

 saturated with moisture, and these, coming into 

 contact with the colder strata of air aloft, are 

 condensed, and fall on the hills in frequent and 

 heavy showers, sometimes in torrents. It will 

 be well, as bearing closely on the subject in 

 hand, to give some idea of what the rainfall is. 



