362 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



bretia, Alyssum, and many other dwarf 

 grey plants thriving in ordinary soils. 

 Most important of all, however, is to 

 avoid the universal " dotting" way, of 

 one plant in a place with bare earth 

 around each. Most of these plants are 

 of easy increase and the right way is to 

 plant close colonies of them so as to 

 cover the earth — not following any one 

 formula as to number, but grouping so 

 as to get simple effects — not repeating 

 favourite plants everywhere, but hold- 

 ingeachkind " together," asinthatway 

 they give far better effect and are also 

 more easily looked after. 



FILMY FERNS. 



[Continued from page 338.) 



Having dealt in our last issue with the 

 cool section of this charming group, 

 it may be well to close our review by 

 mention of the kinds needing more 

 warmth than is often found in the cool 

 greenhouse, though few even of these 

 require any great degree of heat. Some 

 growers with well-planned ferneries are 

 able to grow by far the greater number 

 of these plants without artificial heat 

 even in winter, for instead of injury a 

 spell of frost often seems to do them 

 good. Valuable collections in which the 

 plants were frozen solid for weeks to- 

 gether during the hard winters of 1879- 

 80 and 1894—95, thawed without loss 

 and grew away merrily, as though re- 

 freshed by the unwonted rest; far better 

 indeed than others of the same kinds 

 removed for safety to a heated house. 

 It may therefore be assumed that the 

 Filmies described below need only 

 enough heat to maintain a fairly even 

 temperature, and in this way outside 



coverings are of more value than fire 

 heat during the greater part of the year; 

 a few tender sorts are singled out as 

 needing more heat than their fellows. 



When used to cover walls the space 

 should be prepared by fixing stout wide- 

 meshed iron wire about 3 inches from 

 the wall and filling the space between 

 with roughly broken peat and sandstone 

 fragments, the whole made very firm. 

 The stems can then be pegged upon this 

 bed, and will quickly spread into a sheet 

 of drooping fronds. A trickle of water 

 from the top of the wall, and passing 

 under the peat, keeps the roots moist and 

 cool ; caught again in shallow troughs 

 upon the floor the same water main- 

 tains a damp atmosphere in the house. 

 F iltered rain-water is best for sprinkling, 

 for the lime present in spring water is 

 fatal to delicate sorts. Sphagnum Moss 

 is often used in beds for these Ferns as 

 holding moisture without turning sour; 

 before use, however, it should be cleared 

 of woody fragments, which set up dan- 

 gerous fungus. It is surprising to find 

 how happily kinds will grow together 

 from countries apart in climate and 

 { temperature, and when their needs are 

 known the ease with which these Ferns 

 are grown pleases all who take them in 

 hand. 



Hymenophyllum abruptum. — A charming 

 plant with tiny fronds seldom over an inch 

 long and half an inch wide ; they are broadly 

 oblong with blunt tips, trembling upon fine 

 wire-like stems, the segments cut half across 

 and of shining deep green. Tropical South 

 j America and West Indies, spreading as a dense 

 mossy carpet over rocks and tree-trunks. Syn. 

 H. brevifrons. 



H.asplenioides. — A little Fern with slender 

 creeping roots, fronds of 4 to 6 inches long, 



