The Fern House. 
167 
In the selection of ferns, the matter for first consideration is their relative 
hardiness. If the house is heated, there is a wider range for selection than 
otherwise, but in a house wholly unaided by artificial heat an immense 
number of the most beautiful kinds may be grown to perfection. If the 
question were pressed for a decisive answer, whether, speaking in a general 
way, a fern house should or should not be heated, we should pronounce it 
highly desirable to heat it to ordinary greenhouse temperature, both because 
in that case it might suit, cceteris paribus , for full nine-tenths of all the ferns 
known, and because also it would be enjoyed in all weathers, and would be 
almost as bright on New Year’s Day as at Midsummer. Therefore our advice 
to ail is, be content with the proper range of your opportunities; plant such 
ferns as the house will accommodate without necessitating a strain upon your 
attention at any time, for when a hobby swells out like a nightmare into 
a gigantic vexation or anxiety, it ceases to amuse, and increases instead of 
relieving the cares of life. 
At this point the whole subject of fern-culture opens before us, and it is 
therefore time to stop. It must suffice to say here that sufficient room should 
be allowed in planting for the plants to extend themselves and attain perfect 
development; that they should be planted firm and filled in with a good 
mixture of peat and sand, and in many cases it will be necessary to build them 
in, to secure to plants of peculiarly noble aspects commanding positions. The 
after-attention consists chiefly in watering, which must be attended to with 
regularity, copious supplies being given in summer, but very little in winter, 
and during frost none at all, unless the house is heated, in which case the 
supplies must be continued in moderation. 
Ventilation will be necessary, but ferns need less air than most 
other plants, and especial care must be taken to avoid exposing them 
to cold draughts in spring, and to the exhaustive sultry breezes of 
high summer. 
‘ ‘ He is the happy man, whose life e’en now 
Shows somewhat of that happier life to come ; 
Who, doomed to an obscure but tranquil state, 
Is pleased with it, and, were he free to choose, 
Would make his fate his choice ; whom peace, the fruit 
Of virtue, and whom virtue, fruit of faith, 
Prepare for happiness ; bespeak him one 
Content indeed to sojourn while he must 
Below the skies, but having there his home.” 
Cowpkk. 
& 
