THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
19 
provided to suit the various requirements of the plants. There may 
be a shady dell shadowed with a few large trees, where a fernery 
would be acceptable for its beauty and interest, and render a 
summer-house or rustic seat a more agreeable resort than it would 
be without a fernery. The capabilities of the district must deter- 
mine the nature of the material to be employed. In the suburbs of 
towns “ burrs ” from the brick-kiln are usually the best material 
available, and answer admirably. If the soil of the place is suitable, 
the expense of carting in peat is saved ; but if it is mere clay or loam, 
it will nevertheless serve for the foundation, for the strong-growing 
ferns, such as the common lastrea and the brake, will root down 
vigorously into it, if assisted in the first instance by planting them 
in a good fern-mixture. Although the subject admits of almost 
endless variety of treatment, we will suppose a case in order to 
sketch out a mode of procedure, which may furnish the key for the 
formation of a fernery altogether different to the suppositious one 
that for a few moments will now engage our attention. There is 
then a quiet spot shaded by trees on the far side of the lawn, quite 
shut out from the flower garden by belts of shrub and a silvery 
stream. "We shall dig out a broad and irregular trench and throw 
up the earth to form banks and knolls. These we shall face with 
stone or burrs to form a picturesque scene, and provide for it a few 
distinctive features, such as groups of tree butts, an arch of thorn, 
or a pile of rock ; the interstices communicate with a great body of 
sandy peat which is to be clothed with rock-loving ferns. Or we 
may on a hill commanding a view of the whole, construct a ruin, 
taking care to enclose in the walls an abundant bed of soil, so that 
ferns planted in the chinks and hollows will have a good chance of 
prospering. The very smallest thing possible for a feature would 
be an open central space, enclosed with a few trees of an airy, grace- 
ful character, to avoid interruptiou of the view, and therein a quiet 
summer-house with a pile of rock at the entry, and a few grand 
specimen ferns perched on blocks of wood — a pleasant lover’s 
retreat, or if we must ignore romance, a cool grot for a friend and a 
cigar. 
The banks and knolls should have a coating of sandy peat varying 
in depth from six inches to two feet, and here and there some of the 
burrs should be taken out, the natural soil below them removed to 
the depth of a foot or so, and the place filled up with peat. The 
ferns must be planted in positions suitable to the several kinds. In 
the lower and damper spots the lady-fern, the hart’s-tongue, the 
osmunda, and the brake will thrive. On the more Alpine spots 
many of the smaller ferns will prosper. On the slopes, and indeed 
everywhere, the common lastrea will take kindly to almost any kind 
of soil. There are many fine plants that associate with ferns 
admirably, and we have no idea of restricting the cultivator’s range 
of choice to ferns only. The equisetums are most elegant in their 
outlines and colours, and well adapted for damp and shady situations. 
The hardy bamboos, and a number of fine grasses, not the least 
important of them being the pampas and the arundo, harmonize 
with the scene admirably. Bits of colour are not only admissible 
January. 
