18 
New Zealand Ferns 
A Few Notes on Cultivation 
Generally speaking, ferns with tufted roots are more 
easily transplanted and grow better than those with 
creeping roots. The same rule is more or less true with 
regard to those growing in rich or poor soil, some of 
the latter being almost impossible to transplant. When 
both a creeping root and a preference for poor soil occur 
in one and the same plant, then you reach the extreme 
of intractibility — as instanced in Lindsaya linearis and 
Gleichenia Cunninghamii. 
All the Hymenophyllums, Trichomanes and the two 
filmy Todcas grow best in a Wardian case. 
For some years I tried in vain to establish a fernery 
in my garden ; the plants would not thrive. Then the 
ferns themselves showed me where they wished to grow. 
Some four or five feet below the surface of the ground 
occurs a stratum of hard sand or tufa that can be cut 
into blocks with a sharp spade. With these I faced seve- 
ral terraces. The wet years of 1916 and 1917 induced 
an abundant crop of moss on the steeply sloping surface, 
to be followed by a luxuriant growth of ferns upon those 
which faced the south (the tiny seedlings appear about 
September and October). One wall, shaded by a young 
totara tree, was covered in a few months with a dense 
growth of graceful ferns. 
As the southern aspect exposed them to cold winds, I 
built a protecting wall of the same porous material about 
5ft. high. When this, in turn, began to grow moss and 
ferns, I kept the surface damp by making a shallow 
trough along the top and keeping it filled with water. 
The fernery now recpiires little attention beyond remov- 
ing the young tree-ferns and the more robust species, 
