18 
The Fern Garden . 
of good mellow loam will scarcely want cultivating. 
Pretty well the best you can do for them is to leave 
them alone. But those elevated on pinnacles and in 
other positions where they are likely to get very dry 
must have the aid of water, not only in summer hut in 
winter , also on every occasion when dry weather prevails 
for any length of time. Many plants so situated perish 
by desiccation during the prevalence of east winds in 
March, when because the weather is cold and they are 
not growing, the cultivator is apt to think water un- 
necessary ; or rather he is apt not to think about the 
ferns or the water at all. 
Small-growing delicate habited ferns that are in ex- 
posed positions on rockeries should have protection 
during severe frost. A flower-pot may be inverted 
over them or a little clean hay may be placed over 
their crowns and kept from blowing away by means of 
a few pegs, or cocoa-nut fibre or sand may be heaped 
up round and over them, to be taken away of course 
when the crowns begin to throw up new fronds in 
spring. Always wait for mild moist weather to remove 
such protection, for if the swelling crown is suddenly 
exposed to a cutting east wind, it may shrivel and 
perish, instead of throwing up its emerald tassels in 
token of the return of the tender spring. 
Thus far we have considered outdoor ferneries as 
superstructures. We might have regarded them as 
substructures. At all events, I should like for an old 
quarry to become mine some day that I might make a 
fernery of it ; and perhaps lacking a quarry, I may be 
tempted to throw myself into a gravel pit, and by a 
little hard work and patience make a fern garden of it. 
