1881.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
109 
thing is to grow strong plants, to get a vigor¬ 
ous sturdy growth before any signs of flowers 
appear, and this can only be done with veiy 
rich soil and in pot culture, by potting them 
into larger sizes before there is the slightest 
cheok given to the growth of the roots. 
Notes from the Pines. 
It is rather amusing to find that people in 
widely separated parts of the country, when 
they wish to send me a special message or 
ask a question always put it to “ The Man at 
the Pines.” Perhaps that is as concise as any¬ 
thing, unless they take the botanical name, 
Pinus. But the name makes little difference 
Fig. 1.— CLUSTERS OE FERN SPORES. 
so long as the many pleasant messages con¬ 
tinue, and their requests show that, whatever 
may be the fact, they think I can help them. 
Here is one, and there have previously been 
several others, asking me to tell them 
How to Make an Out-Door Fernery. 
It admits of almost as general an answer 
as “ How to make a garden.” Unfortunately 
the impression is quite common that ferns 
are difficult of cultivation, and that they re¬ 
quire some preparation of soil, or some 
treatment not within the reach of every one. 
I regret this, because it prevents many who 
admire the graceful forms and great variety 
of habit the ferns present, from enjoying 
them. Ferns are just as 
difficult to manage as other 
plants, and no more so. One 
would not expect to grow 
water-cresses in a sand¬ 
bank, or to plant tomatoes 
in a muck swamp. There are 
ferns and ferns—some cling 
in the crevices of the driest 
rocks and others are found in 
our deep swamps. As with 
other plants, one can not expect to cultivate 
both in the same soil. Those who observe plants 
in their wild state must have noticed that 
some ferns grow freely by the road side, and 
will properly infer that these would do quite 
as well, if not better, when placed in the ordi¬ 
nary soil of the garden. But when they find 
certain ferns only in deep woods, and others 
only among the rocks, they will rightly 
conclude that in cultivation their natural 
surroundings must be imitated. Before we 
speak about a Fernery we may first consider 
What is a Fern? 
A question that might trouble some who ask 
about ferneries to define at once. It certainly 
is not delicacy of form or beauty of outline, 
for many ferns have neither, and the leaf of 
the common Yarrow, if it was rare enough 
to cost $5, the plant would outdo most of 
them. But to say what a fern is, rather than 
what it is not, we must ask our readers to 
remember that plants are placed in two great 
series—the Flowering and the Flowerless. 
Most of the plants with which we have to 
do in cultivation have flowers, with stamens 
and pistils, and ripen seeds, which have 
within them a more or less perfect embryo 
plant. Ferns belong to the Flowerless Series, 
producing no true flowers, and the reproduc¬ 
tive dust, or spores, contain no embryo plant. 
In the ferns the reproductive bodies or spores 
are in little cases, which, in many—indeed 
most ferns, are in little clusters on the back 
of the frond or leaf of the fern. In others 
the spore cases are not 
—as in figure 1—on the 
back of the fern leaf, 
but variously clustered. 
Figure 2 shows the gen¬ 
eral appearance of the 
spore cases in the ma¬ 
jority (but not in all) 
of our wild ferns. In 
the greater number of 
ferns the fronds (or 
leaves) are rolled upon 
themselves in the bud, as in figure 3. These 
are some of the leading, but by no means all 
of the, points by which ferns are distin¬ 
guished. Those who would learn more about 
them, as well as have an excellent guide to 
their culture, are referred to that admirable 
work by Mr. John Robinson, of Salem, Mass., 
“ Ferns in their Homes and Ours,” (Price, I 
think, $1.50). I have probably given enough 
to allow one to decide whether a plant he 
may may meet with is a fern or not. Now 
between the stones brought at other times. 
Thus there was gradually built up a sloping- 
rockery, common, indeed very common soil 
below, and gradually rising rocks, of various 
sizes, with woods’ earth between, and always 
keeping up an earth connection below. So 
gradually this fernery grew, and the plants 
as they became established increased each 
year in beauty, and I doubt not they still 
live, though they no more have the loving 
care of the hand that placed them there. 
To Have the Greatest Variety of Ferns, 
that is, to meet the wants of the greatest 
number, it will be well if one can start the 
fernery in a moist spot, to give some a semi- 
aquatic position, and have the upper portions 
to suit those that need but the occasional 
moisture of rains. It is with ferns as with 
other native plants, they will flourish in cul 
tivation in a much drier locality than that in 
which they are found growing naturally. 
There are Some Exotic Ferns, 
that flourish well in the open air, but I would 
advise the beginner to be content at first with 
those of the neighborhood, and quite a large 
number will be found, especially in moun¬ 
tainous localities, and the pleasure of hunt¬ 
ing for and bringing together the native 
species is far greater than that of purchasing 
exotics, though that may properly follow. In 
many places there are species not common 
elsewhere, and one who is fortunate enough 
to have an abundance of one not generally 
found, has the means, through exchanges, of 
increasing his stock without expense. Among 
the ferns that are fond of growing in the 
cleft of rocks are the Lip-Ferns, of the genus 
Cheilanthes, of which one of the rarer species, 
C. tomentosa, is shown just below. This 
shows the fern in its young state, as it is in 
our collection, but in its native mountains of 
North Carolina, Tennessee, and southward, it 
is often a foot or more high, as shown in 
Prof. Eaton’s beautiful work on the Ferns of 
North America. This is one of the rare species, 
which our friends who live along the South¬ 
ern Alleghanies should look for. A few ferns 
are found only on limestone rocks, and when 
this is the case, the rock with the attached 
I ferns should be brought home for the fernery. 
Some care should be exercised by those who 
Take ui> tlie Knots of Ferns, 
as they vary greatly in their manner of 
growth. Some have a large root-stock, which 
runs for some distance justfbelow the surface ; 
this is usually dead at the farthest extremity, 
while near the above ground portion, numer¬ 
ous roots are given off, every one of which 
should be saved, for its whole length. Some, 
like the beautiful Climbing Fern ( Lygodium), 
have the underground portion, like that 
above, a mere slender cord, and this often 
runs to a great distance, giving off roots at 
intervals. It is from not following, and get¬ 
ting all that is possible of this, that there are 
so many failures in the attempts to transplant 
this rare species. A very large clump of the 
native soil should be taken up with the plant. 
Fig. 2.— FERN 
SPORE CASES. 
Fig. 3.— YOUNG FERN 
FROND. 
About Making tlie Fernery. 
One of the most interesting ferneries I ever 
saw was made and stock¬ 
ed by a lady. It was 
along the side of a brick 
house in a city, in the 
underpinning of which 
there were, on that side, 
no basement windows, 
and afforded a dead wall 
six feet or more high. I 
am not quite right in 
saying that she “ made ” 
it, for it grew under her 
hands. She was fond of 
driving about in the 
country,and did not care 
“what Mrs. Grundy 
would say.” Wherever 
she saw a tempting stone 
that was not too large, 
it was taken into the 
buggy, and helped in¬ 
crease the size of the 
rockery. In drives to 
the limestone hills, a few 
miles back of the city, 
rocks were selected, be¬ 
cause certain ferns grew 
upon them ; sometimes 
a box or bag of woods’ 
earth came home, to go 
the downy lip-fern ( Cheilanthes tomentosa). 
