66o 



NATIVE FERNS. 



botanists ! Pelhca gracilis does not always grow in this 

 way. If the sporangia happen to fall on a shelf of 

 moss-covered rock, the following season will find the 

 moss supporting ferns ; the specimens I have are thus 

 embedded, and they are apparently doing as well as the 



polypodium with like treatment. I have faith to be- 

 lieve that this fragile beauty can be naturalized, although 

 the test is not complete. The curious walking-leaf 

 Cainptosorus rhizophylhis grows very well from the root- 

 stock, but does not "walk" from the apex, after the 

 manner of its kind. 



Representatives of the spleenwort family complete my 

 collection. Asplenium e/K'nemn always attracts attention, 

 standing straight as a sentinel, some eighteen inches 

 high and never over two in width ; the stipe is black 

 and shining, the pinnae lanceolate in form, and ever- 

 green. Lift the fronds of some of the taller ferns and 

 you will find the daintiest fern of all, Asplenium Iricho- 

 jiianes, sometimes called the maiden-hair spleenwort ; 

 this grows in tufts on the shady side of cliffs, and is won- 

 derfully neat and pretty. A tuft of this is shown in the 

 initial at the head of this essay. Close beside it is an" 

 other tiny fern, Asplenium ruta-miiraria . It bears no 

 resemblance to any other fern and is very rare. Both 

 have taken kindly to cultivation, and are as much at 

 home as if hanging from the side of a limestone cliff. — 

 G. A. WOOLSON, Vermont. 



MY FERNERY. 



My fernery is not a fernery at all. It is only the suc- 

 cessful result of a long series of unsuccessful attempts 

 to possess a cluster of the most fairy-like and pleasing 

 of all our native wild plants. 



And whenever I see a marsh bog pulled from its wet 

 home and set out, in the delusion that the broken stalks 

 and bruised leaves of what is wrongly called "a fern'' 

 will revive and take up the burden of life in its new sur- 



roundings, I am eager to tell what sad experiences 

 have taught me. There is a homely saying that, "You 

 may lead a horse to water but you cannot make him 

 drink ;" so you may transplant a brake from a swamp to 

 ordinary garden soil, and water it as much as you will — 

 it will not thrive. There are many flower-lov- 

 ers who think, as I did, that the luxuriant 

 growth of the brakes of cool, damp spots, such 

 as one dreams of on sultry days, may be had in 

 a corner or shaded spot in any cultivated garden, 

 .f '^? All that is needed is water and muck. Not so. 

 The first essential is lacking — the ferns. 



After many faulty efforts to grow swamp frail- 

 ties, I discovered some ferns on dry soil that I 

 concluded to try. To be sure, the plants were 

 much beneath my ambition as to size, but they 

 were dainty and would do to fill in with, and 

 they have done so admirably. Where a few 

 years ago I set out small, slender plants, every 

 spring there now appear long, supple arms ; and 

 downy palmsand 

 fingers unroll 

 two feet and 

 more above the 

 ground. And 

 such thrift and 

 iberality of leafage ! We 

 use the graceful plume- 

 like fronds daily during 

 the summer in bouquets 

 and floral designs. If 

 bits of cotton and tin-foil 

 are wrapped about the 

 stems of the larger fronds 

 and they are tacked to the 

 walls and wood-work of 

 a room, there is a sugges- 

 tion thrown out of woody 

 depths with mossy banks, 

 andcrystal springs spark- 

 ling out of cold rocks. 

 The fern with which I 

 have been so successful 

 is the lady-fern, Asplen- 

 ium Filex-faniina . It does 

 not grow very plentifully 

 in our woods, but still it 

 may be found if sought, 

 especially in northern ex- 

 posures. 



Then to my amateur 

 collection I have success- 

 fully added a few roots of 

 Aspidium acrostichoides, 

 and adiantum, or maiden- 

 hair, for variety. All are 



planted in leaf-mould sifted in the spaces of a rock pile 

 originally made around an old cedar stump,- which is 

 now lending its decaying substance to the mysteries of 



FfG. 



Pell.«a gracilis. 



