63 
Management of Fern-Cases. 
made to keep the temperature down to 45° during November and the first 
half of December, to afford a season of rest, after which it may rise gradually 
to encourage the new growth. 
Ventilation has been remarked upon already as necessary to the health of 
the plants. The cultivator’s chief care should be to avoid extremes. A few 
choice ferns, such as those of the genera Trichomanes , Hymenophyllum , and 
Todea , do not need ventilation at all, and therefore it is advisable to grow 
them in groups, apart from a mixed collection. But, as a rule, ferns will bear, 
and be benefited by much more air than is commonly allowed them, but a 
smart breeze blowing through a case from an open window will be sure to 
cause havoc, and perhaps occasion injury that it will require months of extra 
care to repair. Those who attend to their ferns constantly will discover the 
happy medium, and attain to complete success; those who are fitful and inter¬ 
mittent, will perhaps stifle their pets for a month at a time, and then suffer 
them to be blown away, in consequence of a sudden fit for extravagant 
ventilation. 
The giving of water is the most important matter of all. Although the 
different species vary immensely in their requirements in respect of the most 
perfect development, yet in practice the same treatment as to water-giving 
will very nearly suit all alike. The soil should never be quite dry, and never 
be saturated with moisture. In spring and summer more water should be 
given than in autumn and winter. The supplies should be regularly increased 
as summer advances, up to about the middle of July, and then be regularly 
diminished. Our cases are commonly left without water, either over the 
fronds or at the roots, for three or four weeks at a time in winter, with evident 
benefit, but as soon as growth commences freely in the spring, we give water 
frequently, and then begin to use the syringe. Now, it is well known that 
frequent sprinkling of the fronds of ferns is beneficial; it not only aids the 
growth directly, but it causes the diffusion of watery vapour in the atmosphere 
of the case, and, as a rule, ferns only attain to perfection in an atmosphere 
more humid than flowering plants require. There are, however, a few species 
which are scarcely benefitted by periodical showers overhead, and the 
adiantums are notable examples, for oftentimes the fronds of maiden-hair 
ferns are seriously injured by excess of moisture. Here, again we come to a 
point which the cultivator must settle by observation and experience. In 
cold weather the syringe should not be used at all. In a case containing 
adiantums only, it should never be used, but in mixed collections, the 
