3-043-864 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Gathering ferns, 1871. 'One of the [pleasant tasks of rural leisure inspired by the love of natural beauty] is to find recruits for the fernery - plants which may safely be removed from their native ground in some cool glade of the neighbouring wood...to the rockwork of a garden...or it may be intended simply to get a few cuttings, with their noble fronds of deep verdure and delicate form, to place in a vase with flowers of bright colours for the temporary adornment of the drawing-room. We can all enjoy the sight of them, indoors and out of doors, whether or not we happen to be aware, as the scientific botanists would inform us, that "the Polypodiaceaei constitute the highest form of Acrogenous or Cryptogamic vegetation, and approach more nearly to Cycadaceous Gymnosperms than any other part of the vegetable kingdom"..."a fern-house will suit the taste and convenience of a greater number of persons, especially in towns, than any other of the elegant appendages of the household. It is ten times more to be desired where there is only a small garden, or no garden at all. As a mere annexe to the dwelling, it may be made a place of delightful resort, to refresh the eye with its cheerful verdure and variety of graceful forms".' From "Illustrated London News", 1871.