98 
The Fern Garden . 
woodsia, scolopendrium, and selaginella, are pretty sure 
to take to it readily, while in the most select spots, hy- 
men ophyllums, trichomanes, todeas, and maidenhairs, 
will soon become established, and acquire a luxuriance 
of growth without the least care, such as to make a 
mere mockery of all our closed cases and bell-glasses, 
and curious caves constructed expressly for the cultiva- 
tion of these gems of the fern garden. 
There cannot be a doubt that the plan recommended 
in Chapter YII for the cultivation of hardy ferns under 
glass is the best also for greenhouse and stove ferns, 
unless it be the desire of the cultivator to have the 
whole or a part of the collection in pots, in which case, 
of course, something in the nature of a stage or table 
becomes necessary. A spacious fernery adapted for 
ferns of all climates, and for the display of them under 
circumstances which we may justly describe as natural , 
forms one of the most valuable embellishments a gar- 
den can boast — enjoyable at all seasons, and especially 
so in winter, when rough weather forbids our seeking 
open-air enjoyments, and when, perhaps, if weather 
permitted, we should find but little in the garden or 
the field to interest us. One of the best structures of 
the kind I am acquainted with is in the garden of Alfred 
Smee, Esq., Carshalton. The walls are formed of solid 
banks of peat, which extend on either side of the plate 
on which the rafters rest, so as to form borders within 
and without. The house may be about eighty feet in 
length, the banks on either side are varied in outline, 
and there is in one spot a basin tenanted with gold fish, 
and surrounded with ferns of peculiarlv novel aspect. 
