UJ5.L 
PRICE SIX CENTS 
*2.50 PER Y EA It.! 
VOL. XXXVI. No. 1 
WHOLE No. 1132. 
[Entered according to Act of Couki'psb, in the year 1877, by the Rural Publishing Company, In tho office of the Librarian of Couktckb at Washington.] 
Of all plants uaod for docoratiug rooms, ferns 
are among the most universally adaptable, inas¬ 
much as thoy may be cultivated iu a way that 
would bo destructive to shrubs that require sun¬ 
shine aud a gonial atmosphere for their proper 
development and flowering. Every sitting-room 
may bo perennially embellished by their attract¬ 
ive presence at the trifling oxpenBO of a glass, or 
Wardian, ease for their cultivation. These may 
bo of any shape or size, ae-cording to individual 
tastes or the requirements of tho situation in 
which they are to be placed ; tho requisites being 
depth enough in the caso for a sufficiency of soil 
for the plants, say from threo to six inchoB, 
and sufficient space under the shade to permit 
of their development. Both ventilation and 
drainage are unnecessary in a fernery, but good, 
rich, porous soil is indispensable to success. 
Overcrowding and deep planting should bo avoid¬ 
ed, and as soon as the plants are put in they 
should he well watered, so as to settle the soil 
around tho roots, and make all firm. Too much 
moisture, however, should be avoided, as it is 
apt to condense rapidly on the interior of tho 
glass, by evaporation. When the case is Hist 
formed a little air, admitted for a short time, 
will speedily counteract this. The glass should, 
of course, bo kept clean and transparent to dis¬ 
play to advantage tho delicate tracery of outline 
and graceful forms of the plants. When these 
are well established, onoe a month will under ordi¬ 
nary circumstances, be quite often onough to 
water them, and they have been known to thrive 
excellently without the case having been opened 
or watered for double that period. Hhado from 
tho direct rays of the sun is necessary, otherwise 
the temperature under the glass would speedily 
become too hot, 
and tho delicate 
fronds would 
Boon bo Bcoroh- 
ed and injured. 
There is a class 
of men who ob- 
k ject to all pur- 
v, suits that do not 
Yt contribute to- 
wards clothing 
xJp. tho back or sat- 
isfying the ap- 
ii petite. To these 
u narrowutilitari- 
' i ans the cultiva- 
pr tion of flowers 
> V j and other grace- 
! _ ful plants is eith¬ 
er a foolish 
N>, ! waste of time 
V that might be 
j% >jj|j profitably em- 
xJg/ ployed or, at 
best, a frivolous 
occupation 
\Y hardly pardon- 
A. able even in a 
l \ woman. For, as 
W 'A a rule, these gen- 
W try are not over- 
\\ burtheued with 
Vi an excess of res- 
iv poet for the fair 
Vf \ s e x, probably 
\\ from a hazy con- 
X. \ viotion that in 
\ constructing 
'A them Nature 
V made too great 
k a sacrifice of ser- 
V, viceablo muscu- 
w u larity to graco 
and beauty. 
^ Flowers iucreaao 
happiness aud 
refinement, bat 
money cannot. 
Hud a refuge for their roots in tho damp hedge- 
hank, in the moist crevices of walls and ruins, or 
amid the interlaced branches of trees. There are 
others, still, which live where not oven the tin¬ 
iest ray of sunlight can pierce tho dark retreat 
which they choose, and where thoy can revel in 
soft aud humid warmth. But all ferns—even the 
sunniest of tho modest, family—love moisture 
and shade tho best, and, though thoy will some¬ 
times grow in tho full sun-light, thoy flourish 
most luxuriantly in warm, shady situations. 
Tho Polyntichum T^yidocnulon —for tho ac¬ 
companying engraving of which wo are indebted 
to B. H. Williams, tho celebrated nurseryman 
of England—has at first sight tho aspect of a 
Oyrtomium ; it is quite evergreen; the fronds 
measure a foot or more in length, are narrow, 
but broadest at tho base, and oitlior accnminato 
at tho apex or prolonged and proliferous. Though 
of recent introduction into Northern cultivation, 
it will probably prove a hardy plant, as it grows 
very freely in a cold green-house, while on ac¬ 
count of its pendant habit it will be found inval¬ 
uable as a basket fern. 
ricultnrist and florist, that these plants are much 
less liable to bo infested with those postB than 
their gaudier rivals. 
Ferns delight in warmth, moisture and shade ; 
but though they love warmth, thoy dislike the 
sun, and when accidentally exposed to its full 
influence, their delicate fronds become shriveled 
and discolored. Yet it has been noticed that, 
these beautiful plants do occasionally coquet 
with the tiny Bunboatn which may. perchance, 
find its way through some crevice iu their cool, 
rocky home, or through the thick foliage of tho 
hedgerow in whose darkest, shade thoy love to 
grow. But even ferns are changeable in their 
moods aud fickle in their attachments, differing 
from each other in their habits and modes of 
growth. Some members of the lovely family 
will boldly grow iu situations where, perched on 
rooky corners, away from the cool shelter of 
overhanging shrubs, they are exposed to the full 
blaze of the sun and roughly blown about by 
every breeze. Others only seek to bathe the tips 
of their delicate fronds in sunshine. Others, 
again, will bear the sunlight, if they can only 
CULTIVATION OF FERNS 
The vegetable kingdom is divided into two 
great primary classes of plants—the exogenous 
and endogenous. The former grow by tho ac¬ 
cumulation of layers of matter from tho outside, 
consist of hark, wood and pith, andincludo near¬ 
ly all the forest trees aud most shrubs and her¬ 
baceous plants of temperate climates. Endoge¬ 
nous plants increase in size by elongation at tho 
summit aud the accretion of matter within that 
already developed, exhibit no distinction of bark, 
wood and pith, have no concentric annual lay¬ 
ers, and embrace moat of the bulbous plants of 
temperate regions, all the grasses, the rattau 
canes, palms aud forns, as well as many other 
plants found chiefly in greatest luxuriance and 
number in t ropieal latitudes. As a general rnlo, 
those lack the variegated charms presented by 
tho bright flowers of many of the other class of 
plants ; but, iu the case of ferns and palmB, thoy 
possess a beauty peculiarly their own. This 
consists chiefly in the grace and delicacy of their 
foliage and the lovely simplicity of their growth 
aud aspect. 
Their beanty, as contrasted with that of more 
showy plants, has been aptly compared to that 
which distinguishes sculpture from painting; 
the former depending entirely upon graceful 
symmetry and attractiveness of form, while the 
latter enrolls tho accessories of color, and light 
and shade, to produce effects pleasing to the 
eye. It is held by most judges of art that sculp¬ 
ture is of a high¬ 
er order than 
painting; analo¬ 
gously it may bo 
taken as indica¬ 
tive of an ad¬ 
vance in florioul- 
tural taste that 
the cultivation 
of these elegant 
plants is yearly 
becoming more 
popular. Al- l 
though the fra- 
grance and 
beauty of flow 
ers must always 
endear them to // \! 
a refined sensi- /S' I 
bility and capti- /S | 
vate even the 
uneducated //' j 1 
taste, yet the // - 
care and atten- /// 
tion they con- fl/ 
stantly demand j 
is oftea but , I 
poorly repaid by l .jj 
a short period j SS 
offleeting j 
bloom; while, jj 
on the other 
hand, ferns are jj 
not only of easy [' // 
cultivation, but, [j 
all t h e y e a r I S' 
round, delight // (j® y/ 
tho eye with 
tlieir perennial ( 
attractions. 
Moreover, it is 
no small consid¬ 
eration in this 
age, when a host ^ 
of insects are 
struggling to 
nullify the la¬ 
bors of the ag- 
