INTRODUCTION. 18 
be always moist, and covered, except where fern- 
collectors and fern-dealers have stripped it, with a 
coating of mosses, powdery lichens, and seedling 
ferns ; nothing can exceed the loveliness of such fairy 
gardens, and it must always be the leading object of 
‘the cultivator to imitate this loveliness as best he may. 
Sandstone, like that of Tunbridge, is not to be 
obtained everywhere, but the old red, and even lime- 
; i. may be substituted when the right material 
is not to be obtained. After all, it is merely a 
question of cost, the cost of transit ; but now that 
our railways permeate every county, the cost of 
transit is not so formidable as it used to be. Having 
stated that sandstone is best, let me next explain ; 
: what is worst, and what no one with a grain of good 
Sense or good taste will ever use or even admit into S 
fernery or garden, I mean clinkers; these hideous 
monstrosities repel every attempt of vegetation, and, te 
in spite of all the care and Se that can | ex 
circumstances, even though pained” pe var- 
nished as we sometimes see them. Next to clinkers _ 
“ugliness we may class flints, an equally favourite 
