CHAPTER YII. 
FERN FOES, AND HOW TO FIGHT 
THEM. 
ERNS, when grown under thoroughly congenial 
conditions, have hut few enemies, as will he 
evident to every Fern-hunter if he turns his 
attention specially to the point; directly, how- 
ever, natural conditions are departed from, 
there are a thousand- and- one foes ready to 
take advantage of the thereby weakened con- 
stitution. The coolest possible temperature 
during the summer is the panacea for most 
of the ills that British Ferns are heir to. This granted, the 
chief enemies to guard against will he slugs, snails, leather- 
coated grubs {i.e., of the daddy longlegs), and last, hut by 
no means least, caterpillars. 
With regard to slugs and the ordinary large snails, a 
determination to find and kill whenever their shiny track is 
seen will speedily have the desired effect. Care, too, must 
he taken when collecting moss, &c., for use in the Fernery, not 
to import also a new hatch of eggs, with the inevitable result 
of a new spell of hunting when they are hatched. Some of 
the small snails, especially one tiny, shiny, black, flat, spiral- 
shelled fellow, which brings tears into its murderer’s eyes by 
the pungent scent of onions borne upon its expiring breath. 
