Cultivation of Rock Ferns. 21 
dry and open position, and will do well in a mixture of 
two thirds broken bricks and chalk, and one third 
sandy peat. Stagnant moisture will be speedy death 
to this fern, but it must have daily sprinklings while 
growing to promote free growth. 
A. septentrionale, the forked spleenwort, should always 
be grown in an elevated position for the sake of the 
protection thereby afforded it against slugs and wood- 
lice, which rarely get into the higher parts of mural 
ferneries. Being very small, it may be easily lost when 
planted on banks or level ground; but in a suitable 
pocket in a sheltered nook in a wall or ruin, it makes 
a very pretty and interesting patch. 
Asplenium trichomanes , the common maidenhair 
spleen wort, and A. virides , the green spleenwort, are 
superb wall ferns, and in fact they rarely do well 
under cultivation except when planted out in an 
elevated and well-drained position. The soil should be 
equal parts sandy peat, yellow loam, and broken bricks, 
and the plants should be planted firmly, with their 
crowns slightly above the surface. 
Ceterach officinarum , the scale fern, is essentially a 
wall or rock fern, and a very beautiful and interesting 
species. Confinement and damp are most prejudicial 
to this fern, and when planted on a rockery under glass 
the most airy position safe against drip should be chosen. 
Any good sandy soil will suit it. 
Cystopteris montana , the mountain bladder fern, re¬ 
quires peculiar care. Select for it a position thoroughly 
sheltered and shaded, and prepare for it a station with 
a stratum of broken bricks for drainage, and over that 
