My fernery is not a fernery at all. It is only the successful result of a long series of unsuccessful attempts to possess a cluster of the most fairy-like and pleasing of all our native wild plants.

And whenever I see a marsh bog pulled from its wet home and set out, in the delusion that the broken stalks and bruised leaves of what is wrongly called "a fern" will revive and take up the burden of life in its new surroundings, I am eager to tell what sad experiences have taught me. There is a homely saying that, "You may lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink ;" so you may transplant a brake from a swamp to ordinary garden soil, and water it as much as you will - it will not thrive. There are many flower-lovers who think, as I did, that the luxuriant growth of the brakes of cool, damp spots, such as one dreams of on sultry days, may be had in a corner or shaded spot in any cultivated garden. All that is needed is water and muck. Not so. The first essential is lacking - the ferns.

After many faulty efforts to grow swamp frailties, I discovered some ferns on dry soil that I concluded to try. To be sure, the plants were much beneath my ambition as to size, bat they were dainty and would do to fill in with, and they have done so admirably. Where a few years ago I set out small, slender plants, every spring there now appear long, supple arms; and downy palms and fingers unroll two feet and more above the ground. And such thrift and liberality of leafage ! We use the graceful plumelike fronds daily during the summer in bouquets and floral designs. If bits of cotton and tin-foil are wrapped about the stems of the larger fronds and they are tacked to the walls and wood-work of a room, there is a suggestion thrown out of woody depths with mossy banks, and crystal springs sparkling out of cold rocks. The fern with which I have been so successful is the lady-fern, Asplen-ium Filex-famina. It does not grow very plentifully in our woods, but still it may be found if sought, especially in northern exposures.

Then to my amateur collection I have successfully added a few roots of Aspidium acrostichoides, and adiantum or maidenhair, for variety. All are planted in leaf-mould sifted in the spaces of a rock pile originally made around an old cedar stump, which is now lending its decaying substance to the mysteries of fern formation. Moss, in such patches as are torn up in rambles to the woods, is laid snugly around the roots of my pets, and is pushed down out of sight as soon as it is dead, or a new piece is found. This, with the rocks, protects the roots from drying out. Surely we need but to be alert in order to make friends with our commonplace appearing neighbors, who gladly repay any well directed kindness. - Jennie Buell, Michigan.

Hart's-tongue fern.

The members of the genus scolopendrium, to which the Hart's-tongue (Scolopendrium vulgare) belongs, are so unlike other ferns that they hardly appear to belong to the same family.

The fronds of the different varieties vary from a few inches to two feet in length, and are from one to two or three inches in width. The leaf or frond is stiff and leathery in appearance ; the midrib is very rigid and upright, and the leaf stalk, or stipe, tough and strong. The under surface of the fronds bears the spores in long rusty lines, extending in an oblique direction on either side of the mid-rib towards the margin. Each of these lines consists of a double series of spore cases. These are at first covered with a thin membrane, but this ruptures down the center between the double clusters and exposes the spore cases as they mature.

There are a number of varieties of this fern, and most of them show a preference for cool, moist, shady situations. Many of the handsomest of the genus are found in caves and among rocks on the sea shore, from which, in many localities, it has derived the name of sea-weed fern. The] variety called crispum has a long frond, waved at the edge so as to resemble a frill or ruffle. It is commonly cultivated, and is increased by division of the roots, for it is always barren.

Another of the genus is called cristatum, and has the frond divided near the top, and each division is divided and sub-divided so as to form a bushy tuft. Digitatum is another crested variety. Its fronds are flat and resemble a hand with fingers spread apart. Abruptum has an oval frond, nearly kidney-shaped, which recommends it as a rare and pleasing variety for a collection. Minute differences in the manner of toothing at the edge of the fronds, of dividing or branching, of expanding or -modifying the lobes at the base, of cresting at the summit, of diminishing or increasing the length of frond, all give rise to varieties better appreciated and understood by professional cultivators than cared for by the amateur.

Yucca gloriosa, var. kecurvifolia. - The Yucca recurva of Gardens.

Perhaps the most curious fact concerning the Hart's tongue fern is the striking manner in which the young plants are produced. The process of germination of the spores or seed is carried on while the spores continue to adhere to the frond. Here they remain until the little plants become so large that the entire surface is hidden. As the weight of the young plants increases with growth, the old frond gradually droops to the ground, where it finally decays and leaves its parasitic infants to be nourished on the bosom of their mother earth.

These plants are of easy culture, and are indispensable both to the fernery out of doors and in the greenhouse. Their greatest merit is that of being an evergreen and growing more luxuriantly during winter than at any other season. The smaller growing varieties are admirably adapted to cultivation under glass, and all are of high value in a collection, as those will find who have tried them in a fernery. - Mrs. J. T. Power, Kentucky.