354 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
I Octobe* 37 , 1887. 
ought to be excluded. Every right-minded- and prudent 
man who has some thought for his future exerts himself 
to his utmost during the closing period of his term to 
have the garden well furnished, and as far as in him lies 
to leave no just cause for complaint behind him. It is 
pleasant to feel there is no lack of such high-minded 
gardeners, and very few of them fail to have their services 
recognised sooner or later; but it is not pleasant to have 
a new gardener ever on the search for faults of the old 
for the purpose of exposing them, nor is it agreeable to 
find the gardener who has left a charge taking advantage 
of opportunities for disparaging the man in possession, 
and the sooner such paltry jealousies are obsolete the 
better for all, and especially for those who are afflicted 
by them. 
Change, for the mere sake of change, seldom proves 
of advantage to any, and the fickle-minded and fanciful 
who are always looking for and often making room for 
the supposed perfect man are not very likely to find him; 
and masters who are fairly served, and men who are 
fairly comfortable, may easily err by too hasty action, as 
many have erred in past times, and regret they did not 
try to mend what they ended too abruptly.— Experientia 
docet. 
FERNS—WINTER TREATMENT. 
Everyone interested in the culture of plants of any kind i 
agreed that as the season advances the care which plants of all sorts 
require now is greater than at any other time of the year. It is well 
known and easily understood that when a plant, whatever may be 
its nature, is in full vegetation its health is not so easily affected by 
lack of constant attention as it is when in a dormant state. But, 
notwithstanding the truth of the above statement, it must always 
be borne in mind that in trying to avoid one evil it frequently 
happens that one falls into another, the results of which, if not so 
glaring, and consequently not so easily detected, are quite as bad 
and as detrimental to the health of the plant which is affected by 
it. Many plants during the winter require to have their roots kept 
comparatively dry, but though an excellent rule as applied to the 
generality of plants this, however, has some serious exceptions. 
One of the most prominent of these exceptions is in regard to 
Ferns, either cultivated in the stove or in the greenhouse, or grown 
in frames or even outside. The advice consisting in keeping Ferns 
dry at the roots during the winter, frequently tendered by people 
professing to be well acquainted with all the requirements of these 
plants, is a most injurious and perfectly erroneous notion, as is 
amply shown by the ways of Nature. If anyone will only take 
the trouble to observe the treatment to which most if not all Ferns 
are subjected in their natural stations, he cannot fail to be con¬ 
vinced that many cases of failure in the culture of these plants are 
traceable to dry winter treatment. 
Taking as an example our own British Ferns, we notice that one 
and all of them receive a much greater amount of moisture during 
the winter, their resting season, than while under the influence of 
summer heat and drought when in full growth. It is not only those 
generally dwarf-growing kinds, such as the Scale Fern (Ceterach 
officinarum), Asplenium trichomanes, the Wall Rue (Asplenium 
Rutamuraria), or the Downy and Alpine Woodsias, all of which are 
found growing naturally on rocky and exposed places, or on walls, 
which, during the summer when their vegetation is active, receive 
a great deal less water at the roots than during the winter ; but also 
all the stronger growing kinds which naturally thrive under the 
shadow of the hedges or under the shade of the trees. In such 
positions the Ferns during the summer are kept comparatively dry, 
for the simple reason that whatever rain comes down can hardly 
reach them on account of the protection of the foliage overhead. 
Ordinary showers only make the atmosphere surrounding them 
more humid, but do not penetrate through the foliage of the trees 
under which our Polypodies, some of our Spleenworts (Aspleniums), 
or the Bladder Ferns (Cystopteris), and others grow so luxuriantly, 
and the same may also be applied to the hedgerows by the side of 
which that which for some reason or other is erroneously called now 
the French Fern (Asplenium Adiantum nigrum) and the Hard 
Fern (Blechnum spicant) generally grow. These, no doubt, to a 
certain extent benefit by the general moisture of the atmosphere 
thus occasionally produced during the active period of their growth ; 
but it will be perceived at a glance that such superficial humidity 
produced at a time when through the action of the sun it soon 
vanishes is not to be compared with the thorough soakings which 
the same plants enjoy during their period of rest, when trees and 
shrubs alike are deprived of their foliage, and consequently offer no 
hindrance whatever to the autumn and winter rains, every drop of 
which actually finds its way to the Ferns growing under their 
friendly shelter. Now, if we add to this argument the fact that 
during the resting season of the Ferns rain is at least ten times 
more frequent than at any other time, we shall, I think, have clearly 
demonstrated that, far from having their roots kept dry while at 
rest, they are, on the contrary, kept particularly active by what we 
must consider a wise provision of Nature. 
Then, again, what can be said in favour of a comparatively dry 
winter treatment in regard to those kinds which grow in quite the: 
open meadows, such as the Lady Fern (Athyrium Filix-fcemina)* 
the Male Fern (Lastrea Filix-mas), the soft and prickly Shield Ferns 
(Polystichums angulare and aculeatum), or of those which, like the- 
Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis)are found on banks of streams, which 
places during the summer, and especially during such a summer as: 
we have had to endure this year, being in most cases exposed to the- 
full effects of the sun are partially dried up. Why, we are bound! 
to conclude that their freshness, which they retain the whole summer 
through, in spite of the heat and drought to which they are sub¬ 
jected for weeks together, is only due to the extraordinary amount 
of moisture stored in the ground through the winter, during which 
time they are frequently thoroughly covered over with water for 
two or even three consecutive months. Yet in that position the: 
Male Fern, Lady Fern, Osmunda, and Polystichums not only grow 
but luxuriate. We know from experience that during comparatively 
dry winters such plants as the Oak and Beech Ferns, for instance* 
have their slender underground rhizomes shrivelled to such an 
extent that when spring comes they only make a very poor start. 
But if such is the case with Ferns in their natural state and 
growing in the open where there are no impediments to their roots,, 
which have the full benefit of every drop of moisture contained in. 
the ground, plants in pots must surely be more severely affected* 
for in their case the terminal sucker of nearly each root is brought 
in contact with the pot and dries up much more rapidly than in the 
open ground. There is evidently no reason to think that the treat¬ 
ment which our own Ferns receive in their natural state is not 
identical with that which is dispensed to exotic kinds. During its. 
resting time the Adiantum pedatum, for instance, a Fern of par¬ 
ticularly great beauty, which in North America is found growing very 
extensively in exposed places, remains when at rest, during the winter* 
covered for two or three months with a coating of snow, the thick¬ 
ness of which varies from 2 feet to 3 feet and occasionally more. 
Now, this quantity of snow has for immediate effect to prevent 
anything like a dry winter treatment at the roots, and also to supply 
the dormant plants beneath with a quantity of moisture far greater 
than anything to which they are exposed during the summer. It is- 
therefore not surprising to find that under cultivation that lovely 
Fern has the most undeserved reputation of being a bad grower* 
and that frequently after four or five months of dry treatment 
its crowns have vanished. It is the same with most of the de¬ 
ciduous Ferns, which class of plants amateurs in general are more 
and more inclined to eliminate from their collections under the 
pretence that they are usually lost during the winter. If they are 
so lost, it is evidently from the want of moisture at the roots during 
their resting time, and if the effects of such a pernicious yet general 
treatment are so disastrous to plants devoid of foliage, it certainly 
follows that Ferns of an evergreen nature must by the same treat¬ 
ment be punished to a greater degree still. From what precedes 
we must not conclude that the present treatment only needs reversal* 
making the summer treatment a dry one, superseding that which is 
now in favour during the winter, for when Ferns are in full growth 
their requirements, so far as liquid at the roots is concerned, are a. 
serious consideration ; but at the same time these waterings must 
neither, as is frequently the case, cease altogether for the deciduous 
kinds, nor become for the evergreen ones so very remote as to be of 
almost practically no value for keeping the roots of the plants in a 
perfectly constant state of moisture, which Nature teaches us is the 
state in which Ferns should be kept during their resting time,— 
Theo. 
COARSE VEGETABLES. 
When Mr. Iggulden penned his little note on page 335,1 hope he did 
not think I was dead and thus not able to reply to it. I assure him I 
am in the land of the living, and there hope to remain for some tinte, 
but, as I am advancing in years, try to spend as quiet a life as circum¬ 
stances permit. He, however, disturbs my rest, and I shall have no 
difficulty in showing how erroneous is his statement concerning me, but 
as to putting him right,that is another matter, and I imagine not a very 
easy task to accomplish. 
