I HOUSE AND GARDEN 
J 
ANUARY, 1913 
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1 
Buy Hicks Cedars Ibr 
Wind Breaks an 
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, 
forming a wind break or screen for the 
modest cottage. 
It may be there are large evergreens 
near you. 
If so, we can move them wherever you 
would like. Frost is no hindrance, we 
plant evergreens all Winter long. Send 
for “Hicks’ Trees”—it’s interestng and 
unusual. 
j\TEVER have we had so fine an as- 
sortment —4000 fine evergreens 15 
to 30 years old, 10 to 30 feet high. 
Every one of them has had individual 
attention, and they show it. The roots 
have been systematically pruned and the 
heads pinched back to thicken up the 
foliage. 
We have fine full-formed specimens for 
embellishing the most stately garden, or 
Isslslc Hicks © Son Westbury, L. I. 
Garden Furniture 
ARTISTIC, COMFORTABLE & DURABLE 
OLD ENGLISH GARDEN SEATS 
RUSTIC WORK GARDEN HOUSES 
ROSE ARBORS & OTHER ACCES¬ 
SORIES FOR THE ADORNMENT 
& COMFORT OF THE GARDEN 
We viake a Special Offer for orders received in January 
Send for New Catalogue of Many Designs 
NORTH SHORE FERNERIES CO. 
BEVERLY, MASS. 
Specialists 
in House 
Furnishings 
YY/E are specialists in house furnishings, with 
particular reference to kitchen, laundry 
and dining room equipment. 
We believe our stock is the most complete 
and comprehensive in this country. 
Permit us to place at your service the results of 
our long experience and careful study in this field. 
45th St. and 6th Ave., New York 
seed. The following year it was large 
enough to afford considerable shade 
through the warm season, loaded with 
blossoms and berries. This summer they 
built a heavy framework to support the 
branches which formed a beautiful natural 
arbor with abundant room for seats and 
hammock. Twelve or fifteen elder shrubs 
here would soon take the garden in more 
ways than one, as the roots must be reck¬ 
oned with as well as the tops. In fact, a 
creek bank is the only place for them, as 
the roots will follow the sewer pipes for 
fifty feet, often twining round and break¬ 
ing the pipes. They are found growing all 
along the creek beds—their natural loca¬ 
tion, as the roots are hunting for water. 
The Chinese elder grows easily here in 
California, and would anywhere, perhaps, 
and is not quite in such a hurry; but still 
it is a tree. The blossom is of immense 
size, and individual flowers are much 
larger than the American elder blossom. 
The foliage is somewhat different, the 
leaves being more or less streaked yellow. 
E. A. S., San Jose, Cal. 
Filmy Ferns 
T HE term “filmy ferns” is applied by 
horticulturists to a section of the 
great fern family of which the species of 
trichomanes, the todeas and the hymeno- 
phyllum are the principal members. These 
dainty ferns have fronds or leaves of a 
very thin and translucent texture, and are 
often very finely cut or divided, and these 
two characteristics give to them a peculiar 
grace and beauty. Another natural char¬ 
acteristic running through the group is 
their love for ample moisture and cool 
and grateful shade. Some few kinds from 
the tropical regions, both east and west, 
like a warm temperature; but by far the 
larger number of kinds may be grown in 
a close greenhouse from which frost is 
merely excluded. A low and rather flat- 
roofed house partly below ground level 
and facing north, is an ideal spot for their 
cultivation. A lean-to house with a wall 
backing south and extending above the 
highest part of the glass roof, is also an 
advantage. A flow and return hot water 
pipe is all that is desirable in the way of 
heating, and this should be arranged so 
that the heat can be turned on during the 
severe weather only. Collections of these, 
the most exquisitely cool and refreshing 
of all the fern family, are now grown in 
nearly all botanical gardens, and in many 
private gardens as well. 
These ferns may be grown in peat fibre 
in pots or pans on the dead trunks of tree 
ferns or blocks of red sandstone. After 
all, the main point in filmy fern culture is 
the equable atmosphere of the house, which 
must be moisture-laden and close, i. e., not 
too freely ventilated. If a house is totally 
unheated—as is sometimes the case,—then 
it is well not to open the door even 
during severe frost, but leave it closed 
until after a thaw has occurred. It is also 
necessary to damp down the plants and 
the floor and walls of the house before 
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