ROCKERIES AND FERNS. 
77 
on a table in the window or in a corner, and with daily air 
and watering it will remain green and beautiful in-doors 
until removed to its summer quarters. 
Open wire baskets and open baskets of wood, lined 
with moss and filled with ferns, are very ornamental as 
hanging-baskets, and among the ferns which are most de¬ 
sirable for this purpose are the lygodiums, adiantums , 
nephrolepis , aspleniums , etc. The singular branching 
species known as plcitycerium , or stag’s-horn fern, is very 
effective in a hanging-basket. 
Cut ferns may be kept fresh all winter by packing them 
in a barrel, with a layer of earth at the bottom, then a layer 
of ferns, then a light layer of earth, and so on until the 
barrel is filled. They are always beautiful with flowers, 
and a basket or glass, arranged with them in wet sand, can 
be had at any time as a table ornament when there is a bar¬ 
rel in the cellar to draw upon. 
Ferns dry naturally and readily, and are often so ar¬ 
ranged with moss and other plants as to look like the living 
plants. They can be pressed between sheets of common 
blotting-paper or newspaper, secured between deal boards 
half an inch thick, a foot wide, and a foot and a half long. 
Two narrow strong straps, drawn as tightly as possible, will 
afford the necessary pressure. 
It is advised, in gathering the ferns, that the stems be 
as long as possible, and each frond, when laid between the 
papers, should be placed in its natural position. The paper 
should be changed two or three times a week, to keep the 
ferns quite dry, and in two or three weeks they will be fit 
for use. 
