HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 99 
it will readily bear transplanting any of the few following years. The best 
time to transplant Oaks is the spring, early — before the sap has commenced 
activity. The Oak makes few fibres during the winter season, so that the 
usual advantages derived from fall planting are inoperative here. In plant- 
ing, also, they should be planted rather deeper than most other trees, or 
they are apt to die back considerably when the warm weather comes. With 
these precautions, this beautiful tree can be managed very successfully. 
Thomas Meehan. 
Mr. Editor : 
Permit me to endorse all that Mr. Sanders has said, in a late number, in 
favor of the family of Ferns. I cannot conceive a more interesting class of 
plants, or one that will adapt itself so well to the fancy of man, as the 
humble Fern. Enter a Fernery, either from tropical or temperate regions, 
at any season of the year, and you will find something to admire. Here 
the curving frond developing itself in true artistic form, there another more 
advanced, in all the beauty you could desire, while yonder the noble frond 
of some gigantic Tree Fern bends itself over the more lowly companions as 
if to protect them from harm ; all remind us of the wisdom and goodness of 
the Omnipotence in clothing the earth with vegetation, and giving to each 
plant a constitution suitable to that part of the globe in which it was placed. 
The hardy Ferns are no less curious and handsome in their season of growth, 
and may be grown by any person having a few square feet of ground in a 
shady corner, where little else would grow ; raise thereon a mound of light 
sandy earth, of any shape and size, to suit the taste of the owner, and over 
that place some roots and pieces of rocks, so as to give the appearance of 
natural rock-work, and among these plant the Ferns anytime in spring, 
attend to watering in dry weather, and you will be amply rewarded for all 
the trouble, by watching their singular development and after-beauty, 
especially of a summer's evening, after having been sprinkled overhead 
through the rose of a watering-pot. If a small fountain can be added, the 
beauty will be much enhanced. 
It is, however, to the cultivation of Ferns in dwelling-rooms, that I most 
particularly wish to draw attention. 
Your readers are no doubt aware, how difficult it is to keep the ordinary 
greenhouse plants in health, for any length of time ; in fact, to keep them 
even alive, in dwelling-rooms. Not so with the Ferns ; they may be grown 
