How to form an Outdoor Fernery , 
11 
CHAPTER III. 
HOW TO FORM AN OUTDOOR FERNERY. 
keep up your interest in the subject, make a 
fernery at the very outset, even if you do not 
know the names of half a dozen ferns. If 
you cannot go collecting you may be able to dip into 
the tempting basket of the itinerant fern vendor, who 
is sure to be able to supply you with the Male fern, 
or Lastrea Filix mas , which is the hardiest of all, and 
will grow almost anywhere; the Lady fern, or Athyrium 
Filix fcemina ; the Hard fern, or Blechnum spicant; and 
the Hartstongue fern, or Scolopendrium vulgare . With 
these four you can make a good beginning. It is 
usual to construct the outdoor fernery of some sort of 
“ rockwork/* and for two good reasons, first, because 
the forms and hues of ferns are more effectually dis- 
played when their bright green tufts rise out of grey 
stones or dark burrs from the brick kiln; second, 
because they thrive better, when planted in gardens,, if 
their roots are protected from excessive evaporation by 
the covering of the soil with stones and vitreous masses. 
Many a tiny fernery do I see in my travels placed at 
the entrances to country villas and cottages, where I 
should never think of placing them, yet they look 
quiet and pleasing, and suggest to all passers by that 
