70 
The Fern Garden . 
from these curious leafy things little fern fronds will 
rise, and you will know thereby that you did not sow 
the seed in vain. 
Be in no hurry to disturb the little plants. More and 
more will appear; they will crowd and jostle one another, 
and they will form a sort of microscopic forest, and 
very likely will appear to be very different in form to 
the frond from which the seed was taken, for they do 
not usually acquire their true characters until they 
have made some advance. The time will come at last 
to give them more room, but before you disturb them 
remove the bell-glass, and habituate them to the enjoy- 
ment of more air and light than they had in their 
earliest infancy. I usually allow seedlings to remain a 
whole year in the seed pans, and then pot them off, and 
this plan will be found a safe and good one for general 
adoption. 
The process of potting consists in lifting each little 
plant with its tuft of roots unhurt into a very small 
pot nearly filled with a mixture of fine peat and sand, 
and then covering its roots with the same material, and 
tucking it in comfortably. Shut them up in a frame 
in a greenhouse, or put them close together under large 
bell-glasses ; by some means or other keep them com- 
paratively warm and shaded ; give gentle sprinklings or 
rather dewings over their leaves, and but little water 
to the roots, and they will soon grow and become 
bonny little plants. 
In a rather dark and damp corner of one of my 
greenhouses I have a glass frame on a stand which is 
used expressly as a nursery for seedling ferns. You 
