CHAPTER XXV.
Making a Fern Case.--Ferns.--Harvest Mouse.-- Mole.--Ladybird.--Grasses.
WALL SPLEENWORT.]
From ten till four the boys were engaged with Mr. Meredith, but they hada holiday on Saturday, and by rising early they could gain so many ofthe fairest and most beautiful hours of the day that lessons seemed butan interval between a long morning and a long afternoon. They thus madeplenty of time for their numerous occupations.
FORKED SPLEENWORT.]
Mary said to Jimmy one day, "Will you make me a fern-case? Frank has somany things to do. I have been promised a lot of ferns from Devonshire.A friend of mine will send them to me by post, and I should so like tohave a nice little fernery for my bedroom window."
GREEN SPLEENWORT.]
Jimmy gladly promised to make one for her, and Dick, who would haveliked to have had the commission himself, volunteered to help him. Theyfirst of all made a strong deal box, about two feet six inches long, andone foot six inches broad, and six inches deep. This was lined carefullywith sheet lead, which was to make it perfectly water-tight. They thenmade a wooden framework, with a pointed roof, to fit on the top of it.This they glazed with ordinary window-glass, and painted all thewood-work black. It was now ready for the soil. First they put a layer,about two inches deep, of broken sandstone, in order to ensure perfectdrainage, and mixed with this were some lumps of charcoal to keep itpure. Then they filled up the box with earth, mixed in the proportionsfollowing:--one-third part of garden mould, one-third part of sand, andone-third part of peaty earth, with an admixture of dead leaves. In thecentre of the rockery they built up a framework of curiously water-wornflints, and then they carried the affair in triumph to Mary's room,where they planted the ferns she had received from her friend--glossy,whole-leaved hart's-tongues, delicate, black-stemmed maiden-hair,ladder-like polypodies and blechnums, feathery lady-ferns, light greenand branching oak-ferns, and many another species, which,notwithstanding their removal from the Devonshire lanes, grew andflourished in Mary's fern-case, and soon became a sight most pleasant tothe eye.
OAK FERN.]
FRUCTIFICATION OF FERNS. 1. Asplenium. 2. Scolopendrium. 3. Cystopteris. 4. Blechnum. 5. Hymenophyllum. 6. Pteris. 7. Adiantum. 8. Trichomanes. 9. Woodsia.]
To anyone fond of ferns nothing can be more interesting than afern-case. Nearly all ferns grow well in them, if they are properlyattended to. Whenever the soil becomes dry on the surface, they shouldbe well watered, and this should not be done too often, or it willencourage the growth of mould. The moisture will evaporate and condenseon the side of the glass, and run down again to the earth, so that thereis very little waste. The plants thus create an atmosphere of their own,and will thrive in it wonderfully.
WALL RUE. JERSEY FERN. MARSH FERN.]
One day it was so intensely hot that it was impossible to do anythingbut lie in the shade. The boys had bathed twice, and the deck planks ofthe yacht were so burning hot that they could with difficulty stand uponthem. They sought a shady corner of the paddock, and there underneath atall hedge and the shade of an oak they lay, and talked, and read. Frankwas teasing Dick with a piece of grass, and to escape him, Dick got upand sat on a rail in the hedge which separated them from the next field,which was a corn-field. This quietly gave way, and Dick rolled into thenext field, and lay among the corn quite happy and contented. Suddenlyhe called out--
"Come and look at this nest in the corn-stalks! It can't be a bird's.What is it?"
Frank and Jimmy went through the gap and examined it.
HARVEST MOUSE AND NEST.]
"It is the nest of a harvest mouse," said Frank, "and there are half adozen naked little mice inside."
The harvest mouse is the smallest of British animals. Unlike itsrelatives, it builds its nest in the stalks of grass or corn at a littledistance from the ground. The nest is globular in shape, made of wovengrass, and has a small entrance like that of a wren's.
MOLE.]
"And here is a mole-trap," said Jimmy, "with a mole in it. What smoothglossy fur it has! It will set whichever way you rub it."
"Yes; and don't you see the use of that. It can run backwards orforwards along its narrow burrows with the greatest ease. It could notdo that if the fur had a right and a wrong way."
"Can it see?" asked Jimmy, pointing to the tiny black specks whichrepresented its eyes.
"Oh yes. Not very well, I dare say; but well enough for its ownpurposes. It can run along its passages at a great speed, as people havefound out by putting straws at intervals along them, and then startlingthe mole at one end and watching the straws as they were thrown down."
During the autumn and winter the mole resides in a fortress, often atshort distances from the burrow where it nests. This fortress is alwaysplaced in a position of safety, and is of a most complex construction.It is a hillock, containing two or three tiers of galleries withconnecting passages, and from the central chamber it has passages, orrows, extending in different directions.
LADYBIRD AND ITS STAGES.]
The boys returned to their couches in the long grass in the shade, andFrank was soon too sleepy to tease, but lay on the broad of his back,looking up at the blue sky through the interstices of the oak branches.Dick was studying the movements of a ladybird with red back and blackspots, which was crawling up a grass-stem, and wondering how such apretty creature could eat a green juicy aphis, as it has a habit ofdoing. Jimmy was turning over the pages of his book, and looking out theplates of flowers, and comparing them with some he had gathered. He wasrather bewildered and somewhat discouraged at the immensity of the studyhe had undertaken. No sooner did he learn the name of a flower than itwas driven from his head by that of another, and having attempted to dotoo much in the beginning, he had got into a pretty state of confusion.He had given up the idea of keeping pace with naming all the beautifulflowers he had found. He gathered and dried them, and left to the winterevenings the task of arranging and naming them.
"I say," called out Frank, "around my face there are at least sevendifferent kinds of grasses. Can you name them, Jimmy?--and how manydifferent kinds of grasses are there?"
"I can name nothing," said Jimmy dolefully, "but I will look it up in mybook and tell you. Here it is, but their name seems legion. You mustlook at them for yourself. The plates are very beautiful, but thequaking grass, of which there is any quantity just by your head, is theprettiest."
"They seem as pretty as ferns," said Frank. "I must learn something moreabout them."
A day or two after this Mr. Meredith said to them, when they hadassembled at his house in the morning:
"Now, boys, from something a little bird has whispered to me, I thinkyou stand in need of a little punishment, and I therefore mean to giveyou a lesson. You are by far too desultory in your study of naturalhistory. You attempt to do too much, and so you only obtain asuperficial knowledge, instead of the thorough and practical one youought to have. You are trying to reach a goal before you have fairlystarted from the toe-line. I allude more especially now to botanicalmatters, because I know most about them, and that is all I can help youin. Therefore you will be kind enough to translate into Latin this Essaywhich I have written on the Life of a Fern."
"That is anything but a punishment, sir," said Frank, laughing.
The boys set to work with great zest at their novel lesson. I set theEnglish of it out in the next chapter, and I particularly request myyoung readers to read every word of it.