TENDER PLANTS FOR A WARM CORNER. 



205 



Ferns. 



It is possible to mention but few ferns. Dichsonia antarctica has 

 already been refeiTed to under fine-foliaged plants. New Zealand 

 filmy ferns may always be tried under conditions that preserve the 

 requisite moisture. Nothochlaena Marantae, native of Portugal, 

 the Azores, Madeira, the Himalayas, &c., I have seen doing well 

 under a bell-glass beneath the shelter of an apple tree near Worcester. 

 Lomaria procera (L. magellanica) is sometimes very fine in western 

 gardens. The New Zealand Polypodium Billardieri appears to be 

 quite hardy, and the pretty Pteris scaherula, also native of New 

 Zealand, I have known out of doors with little protection. The 

 widely spread P. longifolia is not infrequently found growing as an 

 escape on the outside of the wall of the house in which it has been 

 cultivated. 



The preceding notes are by no means exhaustive, but are long 

 enough, no doubt, to answer their purpose. I would suggest th,at in 

 the subject I have indicated a very interesting form of experimental 

 gardening. " The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley," 

 but I am sure that anyone who takes it up would meet with a very 

 satisfactory amount of success. I have referred for illustr,ation chiefly 

 to plants at Cambridge, but there are fine examples of, this work at 

 Kew. All around the outside of the Palm House, and all around the 

 outside of the Temperate House interest will be found, and then, if I 

 may refer to cold walls, in addition to warm corners, there are the 

 fine old walls bounding and near the herbaceous ground, which for 

 a long period have been a source of special interest. If one more 

 remark can be permitted, it is that in the preceding notes I trust that 

 suggestions will be found, not only by residents in parts of the 

 country where warm corners must always be artificial, but also by 

 residents in the south-west, in Ireland, Wales, favoured parts of 

 Scotland, the Channel Islands, and the Isles of Wight and Man, parts 

 of the coast where, from the present point of view, they exist almost 

 if not quite ready to hand. 



VOL. XXXVIII. 



