REVIEWS. 99 



used as the leading character of a species; to distinguish which, I would 

 look for less fickle characters in the figure, position, and covering of tlte 

 masses of seed, in the hahit of the rhizoma, and in the general outline of 

 the frond." 



The author dilates, at some length, on Mr. Ward's plan of 

 cultivating ferns in closed vessels, so as to exclude the very 

 free access of air. But, beautiful as are the results arrived at 

 by that gentleman, we cannot help thinking that Mr. New- 

 man's enthusiastic commendations partake rather of what our 

 Gallic neighbours call couleur de rose. Certainly, however, 

 it is by no means so generally known as it ought to be, how 

 very successfully ferns can be cultivated in closed glass jars, 

 and that thus our drawing-rooms may readily become deco- 

 rated with these most exquisite of Flora's productions. 



" This end is obtained by the use of glass, the light so essential to vege- 

 tation being thus freely admitted. The most ready way to try the experi- 

 ment is, to procure a glass vessel, for instance, one of those jars used by 

 druggists and confectioners ; introduce some soft sandstone, or some light 

 soil, filling one-sixth of the jar with it, and taking care that the earth be 

 very moist, yet allowing no water to settle at the bottom of the jar ; plant 

 a fern in the earth, and then cover the jar with its glass lid, first supplying 

 a slip of wash-leather round the rim of the jar, which will pretty nearly 

 cut off the communication between the internal and external air ; no far- 

 ther attention will be required : the fern will live, thrive, and probably seed, 

 the seed also vegetating, and at last the jar will become too small for its 

 contents ; no watering is needed, the moisture in the earth will exhale, 

 condense on the glass, trickle down its sides, and so return to the earth 

 whence it arose." 



With regard to the theoretical action of Mr. Ward's closed 

 fern-cases, the author seems to doubt whether they have not 

 some influence distinct from that of merely excluding soot, 

 and thus supplying their vegetable inhabitants with what may 

 aptly be called filtered air. The experiment cited by Mr. 

 Newman, and on which he has based his opinion, that some 

 peculiar action is exerted in addition to that alluded to, is by 

 no means conclusive ; as it is obvious that the plantules con- 

 fined in the moist atmosphere of the phial, would, cceteris 

 paribus, have a better chance of existing, than those exposed 

 to spontaneous evaporation in the atmosphere, — an action, 

 against which their feeble vitality could oppose but little 

 resistance. 



" On a hot day in the summer of 1837, I brought home in a tin box 

 about a dozen seedlings of LastrcBa dilatata, which I had picked out of 

 moss; each had a single frond of very small size, and extremely minute, 

 white, and delicate roots. Having a wide-mouthed phial at hand, I put 

 in it a small quantity of very wet earth ; and then passing a pin through 



