File:The century book of gardening; a comprehensive work for every lover of the garden (1900) (20402619349).jpg

Title: The century book of gardening; a comprehensive work for every lover of the garden
Identifier: centurybookofgar00cook (find matches)
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Cook, E. T. (Ernest Thomas), 1867-1915, ed
Subjects: Gardening
Publisher: London, The Offices of "Country life" (etc. )
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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354 THE CENTURY BOOK OF GARDENING. like variation, and P. v. cristatum, grandiceps Fox, Forster, and Parker are gems of cristation. P. v. pulcherrimum is on Cambricum lines of folioseness, but fertile. There are numerous other forms, and all do well if bedded on the surface of good rough brown peat and leaf mould mixed with a very little loam and some sand. Plant in shallow pans and stand these in saucers, keeping the saucers filled with water. Under these circumstances they form grand evergreen specimens, and improve in beauty year by year. EXOTIC FFRNS. THESE comprise a large and variable class of plants, many being popular because easily grown and of beautiful form. In a large number the fronds are delicately divided and cut, while the fresh green colour of many of them tends to increase their popularity. For arranging with flowering plants they are invaluable, as they furnish charming masses of greenery to serve as a foil to the more gaudy tints of the flowers. Many Ferns are of delicate constitution, and need special care and attention ; while on the other hand large numbers even of those that require a stove or greenhouse are robust, and if not coddled during their earlier stages of growth will stand considerable exposure, and may be used for indoor decoration for long periods with impunity. Again, where flowers are grown for cutting, Fern fronds are often used in their arrangement, the Maidenhair being frequently cultivated in large quantities for the supply of fronds alone. Ferns occur naturally in all quarters of the globe, and vary in height from 2in. or jin. to 50ft. or 60ft., as Dicksonia antarctica in its Australian home, and the even taller Alsophila excelsa. Though most Ferns have fronds of some shade of green, there are many exceptions, and some of those that are of that tint when mature are brightly tinged in their young state, while a few are clearly and distinctly variegated, a feature which occurs more frequently among the forms of Pteris, or ribbon Ferns, as some of them are popularly called. In many kinds the fronds are crested, that is, they are tufted or tasselled at the ends, and this frequently leads to a more or less pendulous style of growth. Several of the
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AN OUTDOOR FERNERY.

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