226 
THE FERN PARADISE, 
round ourselves with a host of plants ? Why do 
we not extemporize miniature fountains and Fern 
caverns in our rooms ? Instead of wet woollen 
blankets or ugly sheets, instead of putting up our 
Venetian shutters and half excluding the daylight 
to keep the heat away, why do we not hang in 
our windows screens of moss, Ferns, and trailing 
ivy ? Why do we not set so green and delightful 
a barrier as this against the scorching air of 
summer P Why not, in short, embower ourselves, 
as we sit in our dwelling-rooms, in a glorious 
mass of Fern fronds ? Let any sceptic try the 
experiment, if only to the extent of sitting on a 
hot summer day inside an open window, but 
behind a screen formed by a dozen hanging 
baskets of Ferns, embedded in dripping moss! 
By a very simple arrangement—a superstructure 
of rockery on a floor of zinc—a ground fernery can 
be placed under the dripping baskets, and the 
trickle of water from the moss thus made to 
promote the prosperity of the Ferns underneath. 
The delightful and refreshingly cool atmosphere 
which would be created by such an arrangement 
as we have just suggested and described, would 
