FILMY FERNS AND THEIR CULTIVATION. 



83 



moisture f rom the atmosphere through their fronds very rapidly. 

 Naturally growing in chinks of rockwork or cavernous places, 

 they are not usually rained upon, their growth being made by 

 absorption at the root, and their vigour and beauty aided by the 

 condensed moisture of the atmosphere resting upon their fronds. 

 Similar conditions are the great desiderata in their cultivation. 

 To secure the possibility of producing a natural dew, it requires 

 some care in keeping the house properly " balanced " in tempera- 

 ture, so that the cold air from without may precipitate moisture 

 held in suspension by the warm air within upon the tender fronds 

 of the Ferns. 



Soft water in most places may be used to advantage in 

 preference to hard ; but in either case it is wise never to allow 

 the atmosphere of the house in which these plants are grown to 

 become dry. This can be accomplished by damping the paths, 

 and if necessary the stages ; but, it is well to remember, it is not 

 a good rule to water or syringe the plants overhead. Where the 

 air is unnaturally charged with chemical substances, as in the 

 neighbourhood of large manufacturing towns, it is advisable to 

 make use of well-water, or filtered river-water, such as is supplied 

 for household purposes. 



A very admirable way of cultivating some of the creeping 

 species, which grow naturally upon the trunks or branches of 

 rotten or decaying trees, such as Hymenopliyllums caudiculatum, 

 demissum, flexuosum, Uirsutum, lineare, and scabrum, is by 

 using sections of Tree Fern trunks, which are now obtainable 

 without much difficulty. The decaying centres of these give suit- 

 able nourishment to the Ferns, and ripe spores falling upon the 

 fibrous surface is much more likely to germinate. For stronger 

 growing forms, as Trichomanes aurictdatum, Luschnathiammi 

 and radicans, with their varieties, the use of rough porous 

 pottery resembling tree-trunks has also been successful. The 

 centre, being hollow, is filled with the requisite soil and stone, and 

 the Ferns planted at the base, their roots obtaining the requisite 

 sustenance by means of holes punctured irregularly through the 

 sides, until by degrees they cover the surface of the stems, and, 

 ascending, attain the open top, and so form a crown of living 

 be auty. 



In nearly every case, however, whether the habit of the Fern 

 is dwarf, large, upright or pendent, terrestrial or epiphytal, the 



