The Fern House . 
39 
they are such lovely inmates of a cool fernery that you 
cannot do without them. 
During the summer the roof must be shaded with 
thin “ scrim” or “ tiffany or a smear of whitewash. 
At all events, it will never do to allow powerful sun- 
shine to shrivel up the tender growth and change the 
glistening green to dingy brown, as it will do very soon 
if there is no shading used. 
A very small amount of ventilation will be required 
if the house faces north, as it should do. A fern house 
in a hot southern exposure would need abundance of 
air, heavy shading and extra help from the garden 
engine from the 1st of May to the 19th of September. 
After the last-mentioned date it might be left alone for 
ever, for one season's struggle against overwhelming 
odds ought to be enough for anybody. Choose or 
make a shady place for your house, and then see that, 
as the rockery is built up, there is a good body of earth 
for the ferns to root into. 
Constant attention will be requisite to keep the fern- 
house as beautiful as it should be. Dead fronds must 
be removed without injury to the young fronds that 
are rising ; some ferns will need more water than others^ 
and in the height of summer the floor must be wetted 
daily to cause humidity of the atmosphere. 
The following ferns have prospered in the house 
during the past twelve years, all of them having been at 
times exposed to a few (say half a dozen) degrees of 
frost. It must be borne in mind that they can better 
endure frost if planted out than in pots. 
