THE FERN WORLD.* MOST persons who know anything about the
charming plants of which Mr. Heath is so ardent a lover are familiar enough with the habitations not unfrequently assigned to the tribe of ferns in the odd corners of gardens and courtyards. If the aspect be right and a few of the simplest precautions be taken, such odd and useless and unsightly corners may be made beautiful with a wealth of delicate and varied greenery. But too often the most inap- propriate site is chosen. Perhaps it is a steep, dry bank, fully exposed to the south. The conditions favourable to fern-growth are supposed to be duly fulfilled, when the surface of the poor sand or heavy clay of such a bank has been more or less regularly studded with cubical masses or burrs of half-fused brick, varied here and there with clinkers, and further decorated with huge puddings of iron-slag. The next step is to obtain and plant the ferns. From some itinerant hawker a number of the com- moner sorts are purchased. They have been dug up a few weeks before, and when in the full tide of growth. Their fronds are battered, their crowns crushed, and their roots left, for the most part, in their native soil. In one case, indeed, we found that a healthy mass of roots which we were assiduously covering up with earth, assuming them to belong to a fine plant of the Royal fern, just purchased at Covent Garden, was tied on to the root-stock with a bit of twine ! Perhaps a few delicate and fragile ferns, transferred from the happier conditions of existence which prevail in the greenhouses and cold frames of the neighbouring nursery garden, are also in- troduced, being dotted here and there in the more exposed and drier parts of the unsightly structure. A deluge of hard water is the next step in the treatment. This, with initial defects, and the adverse influences of subsequent neglect, of dry and dusty air, of inappropriate and insufficient soil, and of exposure to the sun, ensure the ruin of the unhappy arrangement. Thus is formed that which we are pleased to call a fernery, but which the plants themselves, if gifted with reason, would regard as something very different,—not a paradise, by any means, nor even a common every-day world, but rather an inferno.
But Mr. Heath tells us how to make a real fernery, with adequate drainage, suitable soil, and genuine rock. He knows full well the imperative necessity of a tranquil and moist atmo- sphere, of shade without drip, of special methods of planting and watering. We confess that this part of Mr. Heath's volume commends itself to our taste more than his rambles through Fernland. The descriptions of these rambles are somewhat monotonous, though they everywhere reveal the intelligent admi- ration for " ferns at home" which distinguishes our author's writings. Had he condensed these descriptions, and introduced, in the space thereby gained, some pictures, in a more robust style,
• The Fern World. By F. 0. Heath, Third Edition. London: Sampson Low and Co. IBM of fern-hunts in Wales, in Westmoreland, and in the Scotch mountains, his book would have gained in variety and richness. Much as we enjoy a stroll down a deep Devonshire lane, fringed on either side with great glossy harts'-tongues lolling out in the sultry air from amongst more delicate foliage and wayside flowers, we should be glad to be taken once and again for a blow on the wilder hills. Without leaving Devon, Dartmoor above Okehampton would have shown us some romantic haunts of the Parsley fern and the Mountain fern. But crossing into Cornwall, we should have found coast scenes of untutored beauty, unspoilt by human interference. What would have been more refreshing than a ramble along the cliffs from Boscastle to Trebarwith ? We dip into half-a-dozen verdurous valleys, and look down from the heights into the glitter of that superb Cornish sea. It was during this walk that we found, one summer day, a finer plant of the Lanceolate Spleenwort than we had ever dreamed of. Partly hidden in a cranny at the base of an ivy-clad rock, but the most of it peering out from the shadow, yet still sheltered by the over- hanging mass of cool grey and green, the crown of this unique plant was built up of over one hundred and twenty luxuriant fronds. We could not resist the capture of such a prize, and after five years' careful nurture its fronds had increased by fifty. Here and there, where trickling streamlets found their way to the sea over the face and through the fissures of the richly- coloured rocks, we were lucky enough to find not a few plants of the true Maidenhair. But the greatest treat in this way was reserved for the close of the walk. On the very walls of the cliff, though here a little distance from the sea, was a whole acre of this lovely Maidenhair fern ! Fortunately, it is, for the most part, unapproachable by the hand, or we would have given a vaguer indication of its habitat.
We would suggest that in his next edition Mr. Heath should treat us to " A Day amongst the Cheddar Cliffs," where amidst noble rock masses, soft verdure sprinkled with the Cheddar pink, and steep inclines of stony fragments, both the Limestone Polypody and the Brittle Bladder fern flourish in perfection. Llanwrst and Cader Idris might introduce us to the Holly fern, while the heights of Orton Scar, in Westmoreland, seamed with countless vertical fissures, would show us where the tender fronds of the Green Spleenwort find a most congenial shelter. And in many a mountain gill and beck in our lovely Lake country we should dis- cover the delicate mantling of the Filmy fern upon the rocks, moist with the cool spray of waterfalls.
But we must descend from the mountains, and tell our readers something more about Mr. Heath's book, though the author will, we are sure, forgive the wanderings of a fellow-enthusiast. The parts of the work before us remaining to be noticed comprise some fifty pages on what may be termed the scientific aspect of the subject—a few chapters on collecting ferns, and on gathering and preserving their fronds ; and finally, a series of descriptive accounts of some forty-five distinct species of British ferns. 'We may accept, in the main, the scientific and botanical descriptions given by Mr. Heath, lodging, however, a passing protest against his statement (p. 69) that prothallia is the plural of prodiallus, and suggesting that his account of the development of a fern-spore into a fern is, to say the least, quite inadequate. In fact, this most interesting process cannot be intelligibly described without such a figure as might have been found in Sachs or Prantl. Is there not, too, something like pedantry in avoiding the common and legitimate word " rhizomes," and using the impossible plural " rhizomes " ? The chapter on the uses of ferns might have been compressed with advantage. Their chief use is to be beautiful, and Mr. Heath, while trying to make out a case in their favour, and detailing their supposed medicinal and other properties, omits to tell us anything very definite of their composition, or of the curious and interesting substances which ingenious chemists have obtained from some of the species during recent years.
The works of Edward Newman and Sir W. J. Hooker have furnished the fern-loving public with such clear descriptions and such admirable illustrations of the British species, that the twelve coloured plates in the volume before us prove rather disappointing, particularly as the plants are shown on a reduced scale. Though rather wiry and thin in style, the likenesses of the different species are yet quite recognisable. It is, however, a mistake to suppose that nature-printing can better represent the style or facies of a fern than a good drawing. Look at a frond of the Hay-scented Buckler fern, Lastrea recurva. To submit it to pressure and make it flat, is to destroy the exquisite crispness and richness of aspect and colour which are due to the incurving of every subdivision of the frond. Thus the figure on plate iv. of L. recurva approaches very closely to that of L. dilatata on plate ix, though the living plants could not be mistaken for each other,—save. indeed, by " dry" or herbarium " botanists, who cannot identify a plant till it has been smashed. However, even the dead plant of Lastrea recurva preserves certain characters which suffice to make good its claim to specific rank. One of the best plates in this book of Mr. Heath's is a somewhat crowded one, yet all the figures are charac- teristic; it is plate vi., and includes fourteen species. We cannot ac- cord equal praise to the drawing of the Holly fern, on plate viii. ; the pointed and bristly character of the pinnm is imperfectly rendered. We agree with Mr. heath (p. 344) in concluding Woodsia alpina and W. ilcenis to be specifically distinct, for one reason, amongst others, that the latter plant may be easily grown under conditions which invariably kill the former. The frontispiece to the book is a poor photograph of an ineffectively-arranged indoor fernery, wherein the flower-pots are much too numerous, and too conspi- cuous. The arrangement of ferns as a table ornament (p. 93) is not a success. The woodcut following page 130 has no merits whatever, but on the other hand, there is a really lovely engraving opposite page 34, representing ferny banks, " where the land is musical with running water."
Many lovers of the quieter aspects of nature will thank us for directing their attention to Mr. Heath's Fern World, while the author, let us hope, will add to the solid merit of the work by revising very carefully his next edition,—removing two or three unsatisfactory illustrations, and introducing a few new woodcuts where necessary. A careful drawing in spring of the " shuttlecock" crown of one of the Buckler ferns might be added with effect ; so might a few characteristic stem-sections and ramenta, or scales.
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