The household (of the Detroit free press)

mould and die; when there is but little moisture on the glass it is well to raise it and ascertain if it is dry. The dried ferns or mosses can be removed and occasionally a new bit added. Trailing arbutus and partridge vines will blossom in ferneries. Ivy and lycopodium also grow well, but the rare ferns from the hot houses do not thrive as well as those from the woods. A very pretty ornament can be made for the table or stand by taking a collection of ferns, mosses, maiden-hair and long sprays of the partridge berry, and placing it under a small glass receiver. These, taken up carefully with the moist earth clinging to the roots, and pressed into a shallow earthen dish with a small wooden cross covered with lichens and gray moss, and the vine with its scarlet berries climbing over it, makes a beautiful and always pleasing ornament. Ferns are easily raised from seed. Shallow pans of very sandy soil should be procured, and filled within an inch of the rim. The seed should be grown on the surface of the soil, watered with a very fine rose (the nozzle of a watering-pot), with window-glass placed closely over the pans, to keep moisture in and insects out, and the pans themselves set in a temperature of 50 deg., when the seeds will germinate in about two months. Those who have trouble with the Wardian fern cases do not understand managing them ; put a layer of charcoal on the bottom for drainage, and then no waste-pipe and faucet are necessary. It is well to sprinkle fine charcoal through the dirt, as it keeps it sweet and gives fine color to the foliage. Although most ferns can only be grown in the parlor with the proper protection of a Wardian case, there are some which will succeed well grown upon the center-table, provided the room is light and airy. They can be grown successfully in porcelain pots without drainage from the bottom, in which they will develop finely. Put in the bottom of the pot two layers of potsherds broken up rather fine, and upon this a few small lumps of charcoal ; upon this fill with soil, a compost of peat, loam and sand broken fine, but not sifted, and set the plant ; give a good watering and the work is done. Care must be taken not to overwater so as to rot the roots, and not to keep the room very hot and close. The best ones for parlor use are the adiantum species, davellia, blechnum, pteris, nephrolepsis, polypodium and lycopodium. UNIQUE FERN BASKETS. Take two peach baskets, fasten together and line the upper one with moss turf, with the green placed outward and the basket filled with earth and leaf mold. The moss should also be extended over the top of the basket after setting out young ferns, which may be found in any of the damp, mossy parts of the woods. The basket when prepared should be kept somewhat shaded and the moss should be daily 88 FERNS. dampened. The bottom and splints of the basket should be painted in green, as violent contrasts in flowers are not preferable. When moss is not available, grass sod may be substituted for the basket-lining, and' other plants be substituted for the ferns.