8o 
THE FERN WORLD 
of a still, moist atmosphere, and require to be kept out of 
draughts, more especially of dry, hot air. It is essential, too, 
that sufficient moisture should be maintained in and around 
the whole interior of the house by a regular process of water- 
ing with a fine hose. 
A golden rule, it must be remembered, to be observed in 
all kinds of artificial watering is to make the water descend 
upon and around plants in a thin, light, and misty shower, 
so that not the smallest particle of earth covering the roots 
may be disturbed. See, in fact, how Nature waters in the 
shape of rain, and in this respect, as in all others, imitate her 
as closely as possible ! 
The most interesting method of arranging Ferns in a 
glass- covered house is by planting them on rockwork; and in 
constructing this, it may be convenient to cement together 
the blocks composing it, instead of — as in the case of the 
outdoor fernery — merely building the stones up closely 
together without the aid of cement. It would be desirable, 
when possible, to place the framework of the Fern house 
upon a surrounding low wall of stone, as the side rockeries 
could then be cemented to the stony surface of the walls. If 
the house be a very large one, and such as to require the 
support of pillars, these should be not of wood or iron, but of 
stone ; and if they are built up of irregular blocks of stone, 
they will greatly add to the picturesqueness of the 
interior. The surfaces of side wall and pillars, if the stones 
composing them are, as they should be, of the soft ab- 
sorbent kind, will afford sites for the creeping rkizomas of 
many kinds of Ferns and mosses, whilst holes and crevices 
can serve as corners or pockets for many of the smaller rock- 
loving species. 
A very delightful effect could be produced within a com- 
paratively small space by the partial excavation of the site 
for a Fern house, so that the basement of the house would 
