164 
BRITISH FERNS. 
tured whilst feeding. A flower-pan with a canal surrounding it, 
made at the Royal Potteries, Weston-super-Mare, is a simple and 
useful contrivance; and “Toope’s Plant Stand,” i.e. a metal support 
surrounded by water, acts in a similar manner. Mr. P. Neill Fraser 
adopted this on a large scale for specimen plants twenty years ago. 
Fern Hunting. When exploring the country for ferns, always 
have several tin boxes of about 20 X 14 inches, and about 3 inches 
deep ; these will strap together so as not to be cumbersome. 
Carefully tie the fronds together, and place at once in the boxes, 
where they will remain for several days without injury ; and the 
plants, when taken home, will not be unsightly for the rest of the 
summer. A record of each wild find should also be kept for future 
reference, giving date and locality. 
Filmy Ferns. These require their fronds to be kept damp, with- 
out an over-abundance of water at the roots. A sunken pit (4 to 
5 feet deep), covered with glass and shaded with Scrim, is the 
most successful plan. In such a pit an extra cover in frosty 
weather is all that is required for the Killarney Fern and Todea 
superba. Fire heat is injurious. 
Raising from Spores. Freshly gathered spores germinate more 
quickly than those from dried fronds. The time of their appear- 
ance (as green specks) is variable ; some will have put on their 
first frondlets in three months, whilst others may be more than a 
year before showing any sign of life. Confervas and mosses are 
apt to spring up and destroy the tiny ferns whilst in their prothal- 
loid growth. To prevent this, it is advisable to use a clean earthen- 
ware (glazed) pan, the soil having been previously plunged in 
boiling water to destroy the animal and vegetable life contained 
in it. Protect with a glass cover, to prevent outside confervoid 
spores (of which the air is full) from being deposited on the soil, and 
use distilled water, or that which has been boiled, as ordinary water 
also teems with vegetable life. These pans, having no hole, do 
not require watering after the spores have been sown until the 
young ferns appear, i.e., if placed in a moderately damp situa- 
tion and shaded. Worms also (that are destructive to infant ferns) 
do not get into the pans. Pricking out into small patches and 
ultimately dividing into single plants, is a delicate process, re- 
quiring great care and experience. In the earlier stages it is better 
to keep the soil damp by standing the small flower-pots in saucers 
of water, slightly wetting the frondlets with the spray distributor. 
Attention to the above remarks may prevent disappointment. 
Since “Our Native Ferns” was published, in 1867, with the 
exception of the late Colonel Jones’s privately printed “Varieties of 
the British Species,” there has been no large work issued to illus- 
trate the great number of marvellously beautiful ferns that have 
been discovered or raised since that time. A new work is there- 
fore much wanted ; and the author of the present Handbook has 
been for some time collecting materials to supply this want, and 
would be glad to receive fronds of any new varieties. 
