HINTS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF FERNS. 
41 
which run at the back of the house. It cannot be denied that the ferns are a 
handsome and extremely interesting- tribe of plants, adapting themselves, as the 
o-enerality of them do, to those situations where plants of more delicate habits will 
scarcely keep in existence ; we think, for this simple reason, they are entitled to 
more general cultivation, for any one who has but a small hot or g-reen-house may 
have choice selections of these interesting plants suited to either place, and if the 
following directions be attended to, they may be grown with tolerable ease, and 
will not fail, we are sure, t6 compensate for the labour that may be bestowed 
upon them. After the plants that have been raised from seed or otherwise pro- 
cured, have attained sufficient size and strength to be allowed to stand singly in 
pots, they should, with the greatest possible care, be potted, for if the roots are 
broken, or otherwise injured, they will be sometime in recovering. The soil best 
for the purpose, we would say, is sandy peat with a very little mixture of rich loam. 
Before potting, nothing perhaps is of more importance than to attend properly to 
the drainage, for ferns although we find them sometimes in this country growing 
in very moist places, do not like, neither will they thrive if the soil in which 
they are potted be suffered to become saturated. Next in the scale of importance 
to proper drainage, is to understand the most advisable plan for putting in the 
plants, and of placing the soil about their roots : it cannot be urged that it is 
generally natural for ferns to have the soil close packed about the roots, but expe- 
rience has taught us that in potting them it is best to press the soil pretty close to 
their roots, which may be done without damaging them, if care be taken, and if the 
soil have a pretty good admixture of sand, the water will pass off with freedom. 
After the plants are safely settled in the pots, a little water may be applied with a 
very fine rose, so as not to wash any of the soil into the hearts of the plants, or into 
the axils of their leaves, for if this be not attended to, the soil which is most sure 
to accumulate, will tend greatly to injure the plants and retard their future progress ; 
next they should be secured from the influence of the sun, either by placing them 
at the back part of a wall, or, what is equally good, is to place canvass or mats so as 
to evade this luminary ; in a short time after this the plants will have made new 
roots, and become established and set in a promising state for growing, they may 
then be removed to the situation in which they are hoped to flourish, which should 
be the back part of the house, or so disposed at the front as to prevent the rays of 
the sun from acting directly upon them, or, as we have sometimes seen them placed 
in a pit with other stove plants, so as to be partially shaded by their branches and 
foliage ; in either of these places they will grow better, and maintain a more healthy 
and pleasing appearance than they would if left exposed to the heat of the sun ; this 
is one reason why ferns do better in a partially shaded situation, since they enjoy an 
atmosphere more humid and subject to less variation than when under the direct 
rays of the sun. The administration of water is often too little attended to, and 
considered of minor importance in many instances, and to this is not unfrequently 
attributable the bad success of many cultivators, and it is certainly a very diffi- 
cult point to hit upon. In close damp weather the watering should be particularly 
attended to, for if the plants at this time get over-watered they are more liable to 
VOL. III. — :N0. Ji:XVI. G 
