40 
HINTS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF FERNS. 
prove the art of gardening, even at that day when so many obstacles tended to im- 
pede the progress and cool the desires of those whose ardent wish was to see that 
pursuit brought to such a standing as might lead their fellow men to taste of those 
pleasures they well knew it was so competent to afford, than John Evelyn, 
he was the son of the author of the Sylva ; and to show how defined his taste for 
that art was, we extract the following from S. Felton's second edition of the 
Portraits of English authors on Gardening; when he says, " Let us but take a turn 
or two in a well contrived and planted garden, and see what a surprising scene pre- 
sents itself in the vernal bloom, diffusing its fragrant and odoriferous wafts, with 
their ravishing sweets ; the tender blossoms curiously enamelled ; the variously 
figured shapes of the verdant foliage, dancing about, and immantling the laden 
branches of the choicest fruits ; some hiding their blushing cheeks, others displaying 
their beauties, and even courting the eye to admire ; others the hand to gather ; and 
all of them to taste their delicious pulps. 
" Can anything be more delightful than to behold an ample square in a benign 
aspect, tapestried and adorned with such a glorious embroidery of festoons and 
fruitages, depending from the yielding boughs pregnant with their offspring, and 
pouring forth their plenty and store as out of so many Amalthean horns ? Some 
tinctured with the loveliest white and red ; others are azure purple ; others striped 
with an incarnadine as over a tissue of vegetable gold. Colours of an oriency that 
mock the pencil of the most exquisite artist ; and with which their native beauty, 
perfume, fragrance, and taste, gratify and entertain more senses at once than does 
any sublunary object in all unvitiated nature besides." 
HINTS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF FERNS. 
In Vol. I, page 171, of our Magazine, we detailed the method of raising stove 
ferns from seeds ; we now proceed to lay down a few rules for their future manage- 
ment. It is well known to all who have the least acquaintance with this interesting 
but often neglected tribe of plants, that the situation the generality of them prefer, 
is (if tender kinds) that part of the hot-house which is little suited for any other 
sorts of plants, and if hardy or indigenous ones, we generally find them thriving in 
the greatest vigour in those situations which would be immediate death to almost 
any other native plant. We recollect some time ago seeing a good collection of 
tender ferns, placed at the back of the house, on a flue, or a shelf or kind of stage, 
and from the healthy state of the other plants which stood immediately in front of 
them, this part of the house where the ferns were growing, was constantly shaded ; 
and in cloudy or dull weather it was surprising to see how gloomy their situation, 
was rendered, and still more surprising to witness their very healthy state, putting 
forth, as many of them did, beautiful large leaves, obtruding themselves into the path 
