1874.] 
FEENS FOB THE MILLION. 
103 
Supposing, then, that we take our plan for the Fernery from the frying-pan. 
The late Bishop of Exeter took the pattern on his fire-shovel for the plan of his 
flower-garden, and it was praised, or rather, the Bishop got praised for his good 
taste ; and reckoning the handle of our frying-pan to represent the stair or steep 
pathway from the level of the garden down to the pit of the Fernery, and the 
oval or circular pan to be the chief platform, some 8 ft. or 9 ft. below its surround¬ 
ings, we shall have a very good model to start with. Of course the earth, sand, 
gravel, or stones excavated will raise the surroundings more than half, and the 
whole affair is simply the digging of a large pit, and carefully placing the out¬ 
come in the form of a steep stage for plants, adding a garden-seat for visitors, 
one or two small pools for Osmunda^ and a rustic bridge of very narrow span over 
the water, but still leaving a large portion of the area covered with clean, dry 
gravel, so that several persons could meet there, and rest under shelter from the 
wind in this well-hole of wild (native) plants. 
The secret of planting Ferns is to do it in mud or puddle. If you dig'up 
grown Ferns in the woods, &c., and plant them in rich mud, they will scarcely 
feel the change ; but it is not only the plants that want wet clay, the building of 
the Fernery itself needs it as well, for if there be no stones to be had, nor any 
cheap substitute, the stage must be made of puddled earth or clay, and just made 
steep enough not to require support, say at an angle of 45°, or 2 ft. flat and 1 ft. 
rise. Where, however, the materials will admit of steep building, so much the 
better, as the plants will accommodate themselves to the locality, and hang out 
from this rubble wall just as they hang out from a ditch-bank in the 
uncultivated state. 
All our native Ferns, with the exception of the common Bracken, may find a 
place in such a cellar-dwelling as is here described; and it would be good prac¬ 
tice for a beginner to try his powers on strong native plants, before he goes to any 
great expense with rare ones. An old stone quarry, a gravel pit, a cairn of stones, 
or the like, would be a treasure in this way for manufacture into a Fernery, 
where the calm, the shade, and the moisture could be secured. A tent made of 
cheese-cloth, and pitched over a Fern-pit, is a great luxury. The late Bishop 
Philpott had a bunting-house at Bishopstowe, and the late Mr. Veitch had 
bunting-houses or tents over his specimens for exhibition. Perhaps the hand¬ 
somest article in this way that I have ever seen, was the awning over a Tulip bed 
in the priest’s garden at Isleworth; and I had it from hear-say evidence that it 
was the property of George Glenny, of floricultural fame. Most flowering plants 
suffer from want of light when shaded, but Ferns seem to long for this dreamy, 
sunset sort of life ; and the yellowish colour of the unbleached cheese-cloth is 
better than any white tent to show off shades of green. Let no one think lightly 
of our native Ferns until he has seen them at home in their native quarters, and 
be it known that they are not like Byron’s Palm-tree,— 
“ That could not leave its place of birth, 
That would not live in other earth.” 
