April 4, 190.1 
Hie Gardening World 
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uCOOMBE CLIFFE GARDENS. 
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The Latest about British Ferns. 
During the pash three or four decades 
several books by different, authors have been 
written on the subject, of British Ferns with 
more or less, pretension and success. A 
novice veiy soon gets sufficiently acquainted 
with the ordinary species, and probably a 
few of the varieties of British Ferns, as they 
are found in a wild state; but to tackle them 
in the immensity of the varieties now to be 
found in cultivation is no easy task. Except 
for those who make a speciality of British 
Ferns, there is no necessity to cultivate a 
tithe of the number now at command for 
ordinary garden purposes and decoration. 
Those who make a hobby of them may, and 
sometimes do, cultivate them by hundreds, 
and possibly thousands, but the very finest 
selection that could be made would afford all 
the variety necessary for general cultivation. 
We do not envy those who attempt, to become 
familiar with all of them, and to cherish 
them as cultivated plants, hut at the same 
time we have not a word to say against their 
practice in doing so. We will say, however, 
that those with any love for Ferns whatever 
can now find amongst hardy British Ferns 
alone all that is necessary to make a most in¬ 
teresting fernery, either in the open or under 
glass. Exotic species may often excel the 
British ones in size and stateliness, but for 
infinite variety, graceful and elegant beauty 
and all other epithets that may be applied, 
there is nothing in the whole world to beat 
the. finest of the British forms which have 
been found wild or raised artificially. 
For many years past Mr. Charles T. 
Druery has been making a deep study of 
British Femq in all the infinity of their 
variations ; and he is also, a keen and en¬ 
thusiastic collector, who has been ransacking 
the British Islands for many years past in 
order to add to. his collection and to the. 
science of the subject. It is not surprising, 
therefore, that he should undertake the writ¬ 
ing of a book on Briti sh Ferns.* _ 
* “The Book of Briti h Ferns." By C. T. Druery. F.L.S., 
President of the Pteridological Society. London : 
Published at the Offices of Country Life, 20, Tavistock Street, 
Covent Garden ; and George Newnes, Ltd., 7-12, Southamp¬ 
ton Street, Strand. Price 3s. 6d. net. 
The book has numerous illustrations, 
showing Ferns in various conditions, and 
some of them have been illustrated by photo¬ 
graphs of small portions of the fronds, some¬ 
times only a pinna, in order to. show the 
detail. There is more artistic effect, how¬ 
ever, in those specimens which have been 
pulled up to shew the roots and leaves of the 
plants at one view. We are interested, how¬ 
ever, in those pictures which represent Ferns 
growing in their native habitats. This is a 
strong point in the teaching of nature study, 
as it gives a good idea of Ferns growing 
under natural conditions, together with their 
surroundings and the other wild plants with 
which they associate. The picture of As- 
plenium Trichomanes at Home may be' cor¬ 
rectly described under sucli a title, but as it 
happens to be growing on a wall, it must 
necessarily be a colonist, on new ground, thus 
involuntarily prepared for it by man. In 
mostly any part of Great Britain, however, 
artificial positions for Ferns may be found at 
least at elevations where walls may be con¬ 
structed. Such are peculiarly suitable for 
most Ferns that like 1 a rocky habitat, and in 
Fern countries the walls are always so 
occupied. 
The author’s method of dealing with the 
Ferns is to take them alphabetically, de¬ 
scribing the genus in popular language; then 
he deals with the species, and, under the 
latter, he arranges a list of selections of 
varieties which he has made. In some in¬ 
stances the varieties are extremely numerous, 
and in that case only the finest have been 
selected, giving in the second column the 
place where each variety was found or raised, 
the finder or raiser’s name being- given in the 
third column, while the fourth is reserved 
for a short description of the variety. For 
putting on permanent record information of 
this kind we are much indebted to the 
author. Without such a record much of the 
information, concerning Ferns, and even the 
Ferns themselves, get lost after a. number of 
years. On the other hand, they may get 
scattered through books, papers, catalogues, 
and manuscripts, either obscurely or in¬ 
accessibly, so that to the general public 
everything would remain in a state of great 
confusion, provided they were not. tabulated 
