FFRNS — HARDY AND EXOTIC. 



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where we find the stateliest Lady and Male Ferns and all the smaller tribe developed to the 

 utmost. Fifty yards away, by the wind-swept roadside, we find them all, it is true, but in 

 what a different form — short, stunted, and w ind-worn. They are the ragged school, the tramps 

 and vagabonds of Fern life ; but over the crest and down in the glen we have the pampered 

 aristocracy in court array, and in growing them under artificial conditions the nearer we 

 approach this ideal the more the plants will repay us. We gather from the glen illustration, 

 indeed, all the main needs for proper culture, viz., a loose, leafy, moist soil, cool moist air, and 

 protection from winds and excess of sunshine. It is all in a nutshell. Hence for outdoor 

 culture a shady position under a north wall, a good deep bank of leafy loam and some sort 

 of wind-break' in case of need, and we have an ideal place for some of the tougher class, 

 Hart's-tongues, Male Ferns, and other Lastreas, and some of the dense-growing and crested 

 Lady Ferns. Osmunda regalis, the Royal Fern, wants a specially damp position, and if 

 the Marsh Buckler Fern (L. Thelypteris) be grown, a good plan is to sink a glazed earthen 



FERNS IN THE WILD GARDEN AT CAUNTON MANOR, NEWARK. 



pan or tub with the edge just below the surface, half fill with bricks, and complete with a 

 peaty compost, planting the Ferns in the soil over this hidden arrangement, which, by 

 retaining water, forms a bit of bog in which the roots will revel to the consequent benefit 

 of the fronds. That difficult little Fern, the Parsley Fern (Allosorus crispus), takes absolute 

 care of itself and thrives year after year if properly treated, Nature being again our teacher. 

 We find this Fern on slaty, rubbly hillsides, rooting into shifting debris washed or rolled 

 down from above, ever and again burying it. Profiting by the lesson, we dig out a hole 

 and half till it with leafy mould, mixed with a little gravel. On the top we place a clump 

 of the Fern, mulch it up a little with the same compost, and then dump a spadeful or two 

 of gravel stones over and round it. This done, take a big lump of rock or clump of brick- 

 burrs and bed this so that the Fern crown can just push through underneath it on the 

 north side. Water all well, and leave it alone. Presently the Fern, recovering from a 

 presumed avalanche, begins its old trick' of pushing fresh fronds through the debris and 



