March 9, 1895. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
441 
on; and as it is common knowledge that, as the 
former increase in size, the soil in the pot diminishes 
in quantity, it follows that a displacement of some 
kind is effected. In addition, then, to known waste, 
may not also the proposition at the head of 
this note be accepted in the affirmative ? This is 
the crucial point, and should any information on this 
point be forthcoming, I am sure it will interest others 
besides— C. B. G., Acton, W. 
A FERN FACTORY. 
The notion of a factory in connection with plants, 
other than artificial ones, seems at first sight to be 
an absurdity, seeing that Nature alone can build 
them up by her subtle process of adding cell to 
cell, each one endowed with vital forces and evolu¬ 
tionary possibilities which the hand of man may 
destroy but is utterly unable to create. A visit, 
however, to such Fern nurseries as those of Mr. 
H. B. May at Edmonton, if the visitor be indulged 
with an inspection of the various propagating houses, 
almost inevitably, suggests the idea of a factory. 
If we go over the Arsenal at Woolwich, 
for instance, we find the stores of most 
unpromising raw material entering a 
shed at one end, and, after manipulation 
by innumerable boys, passing out at 
the other in the shape of millions of 
finely finished cartridges or other muni¬ 
tion of war. So here we pass, in the first 
instance, by heaps of raw material - 
piles of turf, peat soil, leaf soil, sand, 
etc.; thousands of pots and pans, thimbles, 
thumbs, and all sizes upward, con¬ 
stituting the ingredients and receptacles 
of, and for, the myriads of the manu¬ 
factured articles stored in the glass 
houses around, or filling the beds in the 
adjacent grounds. It is, however, when 
we enter one of the propagating sheds 
aforesaid, and see a multitude of boys 
busy pricking out and potting off 
Ferns in all their stages, that the 
parallel strikes us the more strongly, 
and especially on the score of numbers, 
for here, as at Woolwich, *' millions’’ is 
literally the word, and a secondary 
wonder seizes us here, as there, as to 
where on earth they all go to. 
To those who are acquainted with the 
marvellous fecundity of Ferns in the 
way of spores, “millions” is known to 
be well within the mark, but even these 
find their ideas enlarged by the view 
of houses a hundred feet and more in 
length, literally filled with pots, pans, 
and shallow boxes crowded with the 
minute fish-scale-like prothalli which 
form the preliminary stage of Fern 
life. Taking up a 6 in. potfull of these, 
we see at once that a single square 
inch contains many hundreds, and 
the whole pot thousands, of poten¬ 
tial plants. While we are look¬ 
ing, a boy prepares a shallow oblong box about 
18 in. by 12 in. with fine soil and begins with a 
blunt stick to dot this all over with tiny patches 
extracted from a similar pot to the one in hand. 
Box after box is filled from one alone and duly 
labelled. Passing on, we find these patches expanded, 
and the gaps purposely left between fairly filled up 
by additional growth. Now, however, we see tiny 
fronds pushing their way upwards in each patch, 
and anon the boxes are filled with dense crowds of 
many recognisable species of Ferns. Again the 
boys tackle them, and, dividing the patches, separate 
the plants as far as possible from one another, multi- 
plying the boxes ad libitum in the process, so that 
now the contents of a 6 in. pot require several 
square yards to accommodate the still tiny plants. 
Thimbles and thumb pots are the next steps, and. 
as far as this batch is concerned, it has now boiled 
over into other houses, and if the crop has been 
good and properly handled through all stages, it is 
speedily found that a house as big as the original 
one will not accommodate the finished product of a 
single potfull of spores, that is, every plant being 
grown on into a full-sized specimen. Meanwhile, 
however, the process of dispersion has set in, and 
hundreds of thousands of youngsters have found 
their way into the hands of those who either use 
them as small plants or grow them on to decorative 
specimens. Many Fern lovers are of this latter 
class, and prefer to start with a young plant and do 
the rest themselves. Since to all true lovers of 
garden or greenhouse, the great bulk of their 
pleasure consists in watching the development of 
their pets, and a fine specimen due to their own 
special care is infinitely more precious and interest¬ 
ing than a similar one bought ready made for so 
many shillings or pence, as the case may be. To 
return, however, to the factory comparison, just as 
the boys in the Arsenal are little more than part of 
the machines they work at, and these latter would 
play havoc with the precious material supplied 
unless planned at the outset with marvellous care, 
and maintained in order with scrupulous attention, so 
here among the budding Ferns, it by no means 
suffices merely to scatter the spores and gather the 
crops. A thousand and one invidious foes and 
damaging factors are ever lying in wait to profit by 
by carelessness in the various steps of culture. The 
very air teems with inimical germs of fungi, and the 
earth with a veritable host of insect foes, both small 
Mr. H. B. May. 
and large, to the attack of all of which the extreme 
minuteness of the Fern spores themselves, and their 
primary growths render them an easy prey. 
Hence, with the best of care it is certain that a 
relatively small percentage of germinating spores 
able to struggle through the initial stages, and 
become saleable plants, and there must always be 
active behind the scenes (to vary our comparison a 
little) the experienced head and wat chful eye of the 
master. Some Ferns it is difficult or impossible to 
obtain from spores ; others present peculiar facilities 
for propagation in other ways; hence, we find men 
and boys busied with such in other houses, dividing, 
cutting up and multiplying established plants in a 
dozen different ways. 
Leaving, however,the factory proper,and proceeding 
to the houses in which the manufactured articles are 
temporarily stored or grown on into exhibition 
plants, what vistas of lovely verdure meet our gaze. 
Here is one house 60 ft. long, literally crowded on 
both sides with the marvellously beautiful Adiantum 
Farleyense, its delicately tinted fronds ranging from 
rose-pink to pale green, and forming the ne plus ultra 
of Ferny beauty. Another house is full of varieties 
of A. cuneatum, crested, congested, attenuate, &c. 
The next has a score more of different species of 
the same genera, embodying all conceivable types. 
Another is full of the delicate Gymnogrammes, 
Ferns silvern, and Ferns golden, bewildering the eye 
with their brilliancy of colour, and in some cases as 
with G. schizophylla with their intricacy of cutting. 
So we go on through jungles of Nephrolepis, Cher- 
lanthes, Nothochloena, and Pteris in half-a-dozen 
of its finest forms, nobilis, Mayii, Victoriae, densa, 
&c. 
Finally, so far as Ferns are concerned, we turn 
into a house filled with choice specimens of all the 
species here grown. Davallias and Nephrolepis are 
hanging from the roof in bewildering profusion, 
while upon the supporting columns are hanging huge 
specimens of Platycerium grande, alcicorne, &c., set 
off by pendulous Goniophlebiums. On the shelves 
around are housed several hundreds of the choicest 
forms of Asplenia, from the small but beautiful A. 
formosum, up through A. flaccidum, bulbiferum, to 
the huge shuttlecock of A. Nidus, or the Bird’s-nest 
Fern, or the roof-aspiring fronds of A. marginatum. 
Tree Ferns, Dicksonias, Alsophila, and Cyathea are 
also to the fore, and with their wide-spreading fronds 
immensely enhance the tropical aspect of the scene. 
In some of the cool houses and in frames 
there is a fine collection of our native 
British species, and here we find Harts- 
tongues of all forms and shapes by the 
thousand, in company with Lady Ferns, 
Shield Ferns, Male Ferns, &c., in pro¬ 
fusion, and embracing the very newest 
developments. 
Passing from the Ferns, we speedily 
perceive that although they constitute 
the speciality here, they by no means 
exclude the culture of other plants. 
There are warm houses and stoves full 
of gorgeously coloured Crotons, Dracae¬ 
nas, Caladiums, and other high-class 
foliage plants, next hundreds of Aspi¬ 
distra meet the eye. Then a range of 
glass is seen to cover Tree Carnations, 
more Ferns, Palms, Lapagerias, white 
and red, Camellias, &c., to name all of 
which would simply turn this article into 
a catalogue; and having therefore said 
enough to indicate the immense variety, 
we leave the rest to the imagination. 
Let it suffice to say, in conclusion, that 
there are 71,618 square feet of glass in 
the houses at Dyson's Lane alone, 
while about two acres are covered by 
low frames and various hardy plants 
in the open. Millfield, a mile distant, 
we did not visit; that is mainly devoted 
to Grape and Tomato culture, and 
hence did not fit into our Fern factory 
sufficiently well to be embraced.— Chas. 
T. Dnterv. 
ANEMONE JAPONICA 
WHIRLWIND. 
Three very well-known forms of the 
autumn-flowering Japanese Anemone 
or Windflower (Anemone japonica) 
are frequently met with in gardens 
all over the country, but more particularly the 
variety A. j. alba, also known as A. j. Honorine 
Jobert. It is a highly valuable plant, on account of 
the number of purposes to which it can be put in 
the decoration of the herbaceous border beds in the 
flower garden and for cut flowers. That under 
notice promises to be equally, if not more valuable, 
and we are certain to have it brought before the 
public in greater or less quantity in the near future. 
It comes from America, from whence it was intro¬ 
duced to Europe by Messrs. Barbier Brothers & 
Sons, of Orleans. It would appear to have arisen 
accidentally from A. j. alba, of which it has the 
general aspect and the foliage. The flowers are 
semi-double, snowy white, about 3 in. across in¬ 
dividually, and consist of three or four ranks of 
petals ; the outer ones are relatively broad, but not 
equal to those of the single variety, while the inner 
ones become gradually smaller and narrower till a 
few of those next the stamens are twirled and 
twisted about loosely in the centre. This latter 
feature naturally suggested the name of Whirlwind. 
It is propagated by division of the rootstock in 
spring and requires the same cultural treatment as 
A. j. alba. A figure of it is given in the Bulletino 
della R. Societa Toscana di Orticultura, for February 
last. 
