The Fern House , 
annexed to town dwellings in sunless aspects would make pretty little 
ferneries, but when occupied with flowers, make no other return but vexation 
for the wasteful outlay incurred in keeping them furnished. If we had to 
build a house for the purpose, expense no object, no restriction as to space, 
the well-doing of the ferns and the comfort of visitors alone to be considered., 
we should proceed as follows :—Four strong walls of brick or stone, six to 
eight feet high at least; on these walls a low span-roof, the glass to be 
Hartley’s rough plate • ventilators at intervals along the ridge-line and in 
the walls ; the ground to be laid out in walks and rockeries; all the walls to 
be built over with rock and planted, and, if to the taste of the designer, a 
few arches thrown across, both to break the hard sky-line of the roof, and 
afford aerial sites for ferns. A cave might be added, either above or below 
ground, to suit the filmy ferns and their allies ; a pond for gold fish would 
be appropriate; a bountiful supply of water would be necessary; a service of 
hot-water pipes sufficient to exclude the severest frost would be desirable. 
From first to last, however, it must be remembered that artificial heat is not 
absolutely necessary, and, therefore, no one need be deterred from establish¬ 
ing a fern house by the consideration of the expense of heating it, and the 
subsequent labour that advantage would involve. A lean-to house on the 
wall of a dwelling would have more power of resisting frost than a span-roofed 
house standing apart from other structures, and, as we rarely have frosts of 
long duration, the possessor would not often be shut out from the miniature 
Arcady by reason of the cold. 
A few examples may be useful. First, for a small one, but a good one 
of its sort. The fern house we 
A have in view is a lean-to, occupy- 
ing a position on the west side 
of the dwelling, where, owing to 
contiguous buildings and large 
trees, sunshine is so far excluded 
that flowering plants would not 
quite prosper in it. Suppose 
a A to be the west wall of the 
dwelling-house; B, the north 
wall; C, an ugly corner that 
or a time we may be puzzled what to do with. We alter the 
state of things by constructing a fern house there, to fill up the gap, 
4 
a 
