120 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



each, on the tin tube, and by seeing they are filled with water each morning, a nice 

 moist temperature can be preserved through the day. If you have a sharp frosty 

 night, fill up your reservoirs a^ain at night, and by keeping a very small body of 

 flame, which can be regulated to the greatest nicety, the likelihood of your ferns 

 being injured by the frost is next to impossible. 



•as There is no unpleasant odour of vitiated air, such as you would experience 

 when lamps or night-lights are burnt in the case, and which odour is, I fancy, not 

 only disagreeable, but injurious to the ferns under cultivation. Moreover, I have a 

 sad remembrance of finding, one cold winter's morning, that my lamps had expired 



through the night, possibly 

 from want of air, and several 

 of my pet ferns were frozen 

 to the glass sides of my case, 

 notwithstanding my care and 

 forethought. 



It was to avoid a repeti- 

 tion of such a calamity that 

 I improvised the plan 1 place 

 at your disposal, and, I think 

 I may say, without being con- 

 sidered egotistical, that it 

 answers well, is little or no 

 trouble, and the cost of mak- 

 ing is next to nothing, as 

 any ordinary tinman can do 

 it. The consumption of gas 

 will make little difference in 

 the demands of the gas col- 

 lector. I need scarcely add, 

 that the top of the tube in 

 which the gas is burning 

 must be carried through the 

 top of case, otherwise smoke 

 as well as moist air would 

 fill your fernery. 



The tube is about six 

 and a half inches in circumference. The reservoirs two inches deep, and twenty 

 inches apart on the tube, and can be soldered on, as the water prevents the solder 

 melting, My reservoirs are triangular, so as to fit in a corner, but round, or any 

 shape, will answer. Henky. D. Ceosslet. 



T 



The Dog and the Raven. — "Whilst visiting a remote but rather considerable 

 town in Lincolnshire, where I had not been for nearly twenty years, save on a few 

 flying visits, I called upon an old schoolfellow, a chemist, and whilst talking with 

 him a raven looked in at the door, and received his accustomed bone. The bird 

 had such a genial expression that I could not help asking his history. He belonged 

 to the landlady of the principal hotel in the place; in fact, a pet bird. Accustomed 

 to every luxury in feeding, but still a bird of prey, his raids, however, were friendly 

 ones, and freely responded to ; he had no need to cater for himself. In the hotel 

 yard there was a small dog belonging to the ostler, not too well fed, and, out of love 

 for him, this old bird (for he had been there twenty years) levied contributions 

 on his mistress's best customers. The ostler married ; in a fortnight he had to go 

 through the greatest of earthly trials : his wife died. What could the poor fellow 

 do ? What should any of us do at such a time ? He went every morning at his 

 breakfast hour to the cemetery, some half-mile distant, to look at his wife's grave. 

 The dog and raven went also ; but he could not bear this long, and consequently 

 obtained a situation some forty miles distant, but was not able to take his dog at 

 first. The dog and raven, after his departure, as long as the dog was there, went 

 alone every morning at the accustomed hour to the cemetery, and stood reverently 

 beside the grave of the poor fellow's wife. These facts could be attested by many o 

 the townspeople. — F. JR. M., in " Hardwicke's Science Gossip." 



