18 



PESTS AND PAEASITES. 



rerns, like other plants, have their enemies ; and these 

 come chiefly under two forms : the creatures which make 

 a meal of tbe young fronds, and the fungi which vegetate 

 upon them. Juvenile slugs are great foes to young ferns. 

 Just as the young fronds begin to unroll, they are liable 

 -co be nibbled oft', or, if expanded, the fresh green leaflets 

 are often doomed to destruction. The specific recom- 

 mended to children ^or small birds is much more suc- 

 cessful with slugs, 0. " put salt on their tails." As 

 it is impossible to catch all the depredators in the act, 

 so as to inflict summary " salting " upon i;uem, it is advis- 

 able when they have once been discovered at their tricks, 

 to look well after them for the future, to turn up the old 

 fronds, and search neighbouring plants, in fact, every likely 

 spot. It has been recommended that anything which is 

 calculated to annoy or prevent their passing over the soil 

 should be tried, such as horsehair cut into small pieces, 

 and even the sprinkling of salt in the neighbourhood, 

 especially in dry weather ; but for the cure of slugs, as 

 well as the diseases of mortal man, specifics often fail. 



The larvcd of Lepidopterous insects, better known as 

 " caterpillars," sometimes make war upon ferns. A lady 

 at Cheltenham had an open-air fernery which was subject 

 to the incursions of the caterpillar of the great tiger moth.^ 

 They were first found on the Lady Perns. A few days after 

 having caught the first spoilers, she went to look at her 

 ferns again, and to her consternation, the Lady Perns, 

 which had been looking lovely only a week before, were 

 completely eaten bare to the mid-rib, scarcely a bit of tbe 

 soft part of the fronds remained, and on the little that 

 was left the " woolly bears " were sedulously at work. She 

 then observed some fine specimens of the Male Pern had 



* Arctia caja. 



