B B S MOI«
lí:
XII INTRODUCTION.
half hour, when a summer sun is sinking unclouded
in the north-west. Within the space enclosed by the
walls are sundry buildings, by courtesy denominated
rockworks, but which are in fact close imitations of
the most unpicturesque stone walls that ever deformed
the face of a hedgeless country. In Scotland
I have seen such walls, when built against a bank to
prevent its crumbling into a newly cut road, covered
with a continuous garden of our most beautiful Ferns
—Athyrium Filix-femina, Polypodium Phegopteris,
and P. Dryopteris, Lastraea Oreopteris, and L. dilatata,
Cystopteris ifagilis, and Allosorus crispus, I have seen
crowded together for hundreds of yards: the water
from the land above is continually filtering through
the walls, and thus the roots are supplied with a perpetual
moisture. With a view of imitating this on a
small scale, my formal walls have been built; each is
slanting at a slight angle from the perpendicular, and
they face different points of the compass. One,
situate under a thick Portugal laurel, has never yet
been visited by a ray of sunshine—
“ The beams of the warm sun play round it in vain
they cannot reach i t ; a second enjoys half an hour’s
su n ; a third basks in sunshine till noon; and thus
all are varied.
Even with this choice of situation, and after having
noted the natural habitat, I find it best to obtain,
when possible, a number of roots of the same species,
and to plant them in every situation : for instance, I
have placed Ceterach officinarum and Scolopendrium
vulgare side by side in the darkest shade and the
brightest sunlight ; but Ceterach loves sun and
drought, Scolopendrium darkness and moisture ; so
where Scolopendrium thrives Ceterach pines, and
where Ceterach thrives Scolopendrium pines. Thus,
by giving to each an abundant choice, you allow it
to suit itself with a congenial situation, which is even
better than condemning it to the result of your
observations, which may have been erroneous.
Having introduced your Ferns on these principles of
adapting the situation to each, the next grand point
is to keep them well watered ; and this is best effected
by a garden-engine, from which, by a pressure of the
thumb on the stream, it may be made to descend in
an almost imperceptible shower, which is much more
beneficial than a heavy watering. If there has been no
rain during the day, the watering should be repeated
every evening during the summer; but when the
fronds have ceased to grow, when those which are
deciduous have disappeared, and those which are persistent
have assumed their full size and substance, then
should nothing more be done to urge them forward ;
for all require a period of rest, a season in which
the sap seems to circulate less freely, and a state of
sloth or torpidity supervenes; this cannot be disturbed
or hastened without injuring the strength and vigour
of the plant for the ensuing year.
It will be found a great improvement to a fernery
to introduce a number of mosses and Marchantiæ ;
.iL