FKRXS AXD 3IOSSES. 47 
Mosses may be introduced with great advantage ; they 
speedily cover the earth or stones, and retain humidity from 
dews or showers ; and if you wish to please your children, 
plant among them a few primroses and harebells. The sight 
of them may even recall to your own mind the gladsome 
days of childhood, when you gathered such among the grass, 
or beside some babbling stream rushing from out a wooded 
bank. The snowdrop, and a tuft or two of cowslips, will 
1 Dk beautiful amid the ferns; it may be that, when in 
spring they lift up their familiar faces, you will incline to 
give your wife and children a treat into the country, far 
away from the sight of crowding houses. Such holidays 
refresh the spirit ; they fill the mind with gladsome thoughts 
and pleasant memories, and he who occasionally enjoys them 
returns invigorated to his daily duties. 
The owner of a small court cannot do better than em- 
bellish it with ferns. They grow where flowers yield no 
beauty ; and, instead of that unsightly and desolate aspect 
which courts often present, a beautiful assemblage of graceful 
plants may be readily brought together. 
While recommending the study o these interesting plants 
to those especially whose visits to their growing-places are 
few, and somewhat restricted, we desire to impress upon 
their memories the component parts of every fern, viz. the 
roots, rhizoma, and. fronds. The small fibres above pictured 
represent the roots : the long tube-like horizontal stem is 
