13 
How to form an Outdoor Fernery . 
Outdoor ferneries are usually formed of tree roots 
and banks of earth, picturesquely disposed and planted 
with ferns severally adapted to the sites and positions 
the scheme affords. Where there are living trees on 
or near the spot (and the shade of large trees is desir- 
able), the use of roots is objectionable, because of the 
quantities of fungi which are sure to be produced, the 
mycelium from which may find its way among the 
living roots and commit vast havoc. But even this 
danger is worth risking sometimes in cases where roots 
and butts are plentiful on the spot, and it is undesirable 
to incur any great expense. The foundation of all 
banks and earth-works for ferns should be good loam 
or clay, into which many of the stronger-growing kinds 
will send their roots when well established. But the 
upper crust and the stuff for filling in between roots, 
burrs, &c., should consist of half peat and half silky 
yellow loam, or some mixture which nearly approxi- 
mates in character to such a combination. Thus, good 
loam with well-rotted cocoa-nut fibre, or loam mixed 
with yellow leaf-mould and manure that has lain by three 
or four years till rotted to powder. It is best to com- 
plete the structure and fill in all the more important 
places intended for soil before inserting any of the 
plants, for the simple reason that the work must be 
firm, the soil well rammed in, and the whole of the 
scheme so substantial that there will be no fear of any 
portion shrinking away afterwards, and leading the 
roots of the ferns without soil, or causing hollows and 
crevices between the blocks and the banks into whicL 
they are set. 
