234 THE FLORIST. 
The back ventilator might be made to work by means of machinery 
made to open and shut the whole at pleasure ; this would be expensive, 
and a simple flat iron rod attached to each, with holes in it to fit into 
pins let into the wall, answers every purpose, though giving a little 
extra trouble. 
We will give woodcuts in your next, showing the shape of the bars, &e. 
Gos 
FERNS. 
To all who are fortunate enough to live away from the smoke and soot 
of towns, an open-air Fernery cannot fail to afford mterest ; for such a 
sheltered and shady situation should be chosen; a ravine with sloping 
banks, and a small rivulet running through it, is just the place for 
hardy Ferns ; and to aid in forming a collection where facilities exist 
for their growth, as well as pointing out the means of examining the 
plants in their native localities, the following extract from the Rev. Mr. 
Venables’ ‘‘ Guide to the Isle of Wight” may be found useful:— 
So general an interest has lately been taken in the study and cultivation 
of these elegant plants, that at the risk of repetition, some further details 
may be allowable in this class, since only a few of the rarer species 
have been noticed along with the flowering plants. 
The localities which are in the Isle of Wight most productive of 
Ferns are chiefly situated upon the lower greensand formation, which 
both in itself offers stations more favourable for their growth, and 
abounds in those boggy woods and heaths, in the absence of which 
many of our finest species could hardly flourish. Not that any of the 
hedge-banks are deficient in the commoner kinds, such as Polystichum 
angulare, Lastrea Filix-mas, and Scolopendrium, which are plentiful 
in every shady lane, and Polypodium vulgare and Asplenium Adiantum- 
nigrum are scarcely less general; but when to them we have added the 
universal Pteris aquilina, it requires some little search and observation 
to detect a good proportion of the other 14 species, which raise the 
total number to 20. There are besides five kinds of Equisetum, but 
no Club-moss has yet been found to inhabit the Isle of Wight. 
Ceterach officinarum is very rare in the Isle of Wight. It gTOWS 
abundantly on Brading church about the south porch. The walls of 
Carisbrook Castle are another locality. 3 
Polypodium vulgare (common Polypody) is general and abundant. 
It has been found with forked pinne and with fronds doubly pinnatifid, 
in the Undercliff and at Brightstone; and it is not unusual to meet with 
fronds bearing pinnz more or less deeply serrated, as at Quarr, Groye, &c. 
Polystichum aculeatum is exceedingly scarce. A single root was 
discovered at Bembridge by the late Dr. Salter. A few other plants 
may still exist in what was once Little Smallbrook Conse; and it is 
thought to have occurred also near East Cowes. $ 
Polystichum angulare is abundant on hedge-banks and in woods. 
Lastrea Thelypteris (Marsh Fern) is not yery rare, though local. 
The chief stations are in different boggy thickets along the course of the 
