30 
BRITISH FERNS. 
arranged to a nicety. The fernery is now complete, and 
when filled and fitted with back scene, forms an interesting 
ornament. A few pieces of tile should be spread at the 
bottom and then broken sandstone, and charcoal, and 
bog-earth.” 
Having prepared our fern-case with a stratum of 
drainage, and then a compost of leaf-mould, peat-earth, 
silver-sand, and sphagnum, we proceed to arrange our 
miniature landscape of pieces of rock, gypsum, crystals, 
etc., or leave the soil plain, seeking no other beauty 
than that of the elegant form and verdure of the ferns. 
Such a fernery as we have described will hold about 
eighteen ferns. A few mosses for undergrowth are very 
desirable, as they add to the beauty, and prevent evapo- 
ration. One or two lichens, as the Scarlet Cup, etc., 
will flourish well, and secure a pleasing effect. 
Mr. W. F. French, of Bristol, prepares very pretty 
fern-glasses, arranging within them Lilliputian rocks and 
ruins. They are to be had at the flower shops in 
Covent Garden ; and, though they do not look by any 
means beautiful when unfurnished, they have an excel- 
lent effect with the full complement of mosses, lichens, 
and ferns. The best place for such cases is in a window 
to the north, and twice a week in the summer the glass 
should be removed and wiped dry, a little rain-water 
being administered occasionally to keep up the moisture. 
These fern- cases make very elegant drawing-room orna- 
ments. All the small hardy and half-hardy ferns are 
w^ell adapted for the Wardian cases, as are also many of 
the Lycopodiums and all the mosses. 
Ferns are fully as welcome in our greenhouses as 
elsewhere, contrasting their elegant form and perpetual 
verdure with the brilliant colour of Camellias, Gera- 
