Instructive Lecture to A. W. C.
Mr. Kakuda of the Yokohama Nurseries gave one of the most interesting talks of the year before the Gardening Department of the American Woman's Clu last Wednesday on the subject of ferns. The meeting was held at the house of Mrs. ©. J. Scott where the green-house was visited and actual points of the ferns were shown.
Mr. Kakuda first described how to re-pot the ferns, work which is done in June. The pots should be very slightly larger than, the ferns themselves and should be filled with a mixture of manure, leaf mould, and sand. The oid soil should be shaken off the roots before re-potting. Water should be applied freely immediately after potting and then again for several days.
He then. spoke on the growing of ferns from seed. When a leaf is found with many seeds on it, it should be hung up in a paper until dry enough so that the seeds will shake off. A seed box should be prepared, filled with drainage material, a layer of moss, and some good leaf mould. It should be wet from the Sottom upwards by standing in water for two hours at Jeasf. Then the seeds are sprinkled on the top and covered by. a layer of moss to keep them damp and to keep out the aiv..-After 10 days the moss may be lifted a little at one side to let in the air and after two or three more days, the other side may also be lifted. The moss is gradually taken entirely away and a layer will be found like thick green moss which is really the germinated seed of the fern. From a half-inch square of this one should get from 12 to 24 plants. These are potted and repotted in increasingly larger jars until they are big.
Ferns may also be grown from the cut-up pieces of the fern. Bonemeal should be mixed with the earth. If re-potting is done in June the ferns should look very fresh in September and they will not need liquid manure during the winter but in case they have not een re-potted, they will need this treatment. Mr. Kakuda spoke' principally of the maidenhair fern and also of the Boston.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.