CHAPTER Y. 
SUBTERRANEAN FERN CULTURE. 
There are many ways in which Fern culture can be pursued 
by those to whom the creation of a Fern valley under glass 
would be an impossibility. The possessor of but a few yards 
of garden may indeed have, on a small scale and at a com- 
paratively small expense, a little sub-tropical Fern world. 
How this can be done it is the object of the present chapter 
to show. 
Let an excavation be made in any garden, lawn, or other 
space at disposal, from eight to ten or a dozen feet in depth, 
and of any length or width which convenience may suggest. 
The bottom of such a dell should be gravelled, and the sides 
either slightly sloped upwards and outwards, or allowed to 
be perpendicular, or nearly so. Perhaps the best arrange- 
ment of the sides of this dell, or cutting, would be one in 
which the slope would be very slight indeed from the bottom ; 
so managed, in fact, that the width of the cavity at its mouth 
would be only some three or four feet greater than at the 
bottom. Along on each side, and at the ends next the 
bottom, large irregular blocks of stone should be arranged. 
Upon these other blocks should be placed, sometimes 
embedded in the sides of the cutting, and sometimes pro- 
jecting inwards. The process of building up these blocks 
should be continued towards the top of the dell, care being- 
taken, however, to have no prim arrangement, but to present 
the rugged appearance of a rough quarry, the blocks of stone 
F 
