52 
THE FERN WORLD 
can easily be improvised where they do not exist, and this 
can be done upon a scale commensurate with the means at 
command. First, as to the character of the ground. A survey 
must be taken which should be a loving study of Nature’s 
requirements. If there be a large space of ground of un- 
dulating or uneven character, broken up into banks or ridges 
and sheltered from the fiery rays of the sun, having a subsoil 
of clay or chalk and a light surface soil, little change will be 
required to adapt it to the requirements of ferny forms. If 
the surface of the ground be flat and the surface soil heavy, 
the one must be changed by the introduction of banks of 
earth or rock to promote the inequalities in which Ferns 
delight, and the other must be removed and a soil laid down 
composed of peat, leaf-monld, loam, and sand, but with a 
large preponderance of the two first-named elements. If 
the subsoil be of clay it will have a natural tendency to 
retain the moisture which drains from the surface. In such 
a case it will be found that simple banks and mounds of Fern 
mould can be introduced without the aid of more rockery 
than may be required for growing the rock-living species. If 
the subsoil be light and porous, consisting of sand or gravel, 
then there should be numerous clumps of rockery, because 
the stones of which the rockery is composed prevent the 
rapid evaporation of moisture which always takes place from 
a gravelly or open and porous soil. 
In succeeding chapters detailed hints and suggestions will 
be given, relating to the various ways in which Fern culture 
may be pursued under varying circumstances. Enough has 
already been said on the general subject of soil and aspect. 
But it will be appropriate before concluding this chapter 
to indicate the kind of soil which is best adapted for the 
cultivation of Ferns, and where such soil can be obtained. 
It must, of course, be premised that although all these 
plants grow in soil which is very much of the same general 
