98 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



But the most agreeable fact connected with the formation of this 

 society, is that the designation chosen for it, is a public tribute to one 

 who has done much for Ferns, and more for Fern growers, for it would be 

 no light task, although a pleasant one, to enumerate the services rendered 

 to the inhabitants of our towns by Mr. Ward, in the invention of the 

 Fern cases which bear his name. There is every reason, therefore, why 

 " The Belfast Wardian Society " should have the assistance of every 

 cultivator of Ferns and Lycopods, as well as of every student of the 

 varied and graceful forms of cryptogamous vegetation, which to the 

 botanist, the geologist, the artist, and every lover of the beatttiful offer 

 so many claims for special attention. 



Our readers will doubtless learn with a satisfaction akin to that which 

 we feel in communicating the fact, that the Society has already formed, 

 from the donation of members and friends, the nucleus of a collection, 

 and that greenhouse accommodation has been given it in Belfast. It is in- 

 tended to collect "all the Ferns and Lycopodiums" cultivated in the 

 United Kingdom, and to add to the living representatives of the family, an 

 Herbarium and a Museum for fossils, so that the student of the coal 

 formation, and the investigator of the laws which have governed the 

 construction of the crust of the earth, may enjey every facility to com- 

 pare the Filices that nourished in the era of the carboniferous limestone 

 with the living representatives of the race that now revel in the splash of 

 the cataract, or fringe with emerald beauty, the cavernous recesses of the 

 wildest scenes of nature. The prospectus, which has been kindly forwarded 

 to us, says, " This being the first Society established in the United Kingdom 

 for the sole cultivation of Ferns and Lycopodhims, it confidently appeals 

 for donations of Plants, Fronds, and Seeds, from all who have to spare, 

 and take an interest in the Society. Any donations will be received for 

 the Society by Messrs. George Phillips and Son, booksellers, Bridge- 

 street, Belfast, and any information given on application to the Secretary, 

 Mr. W. H. Phillips, 32, Brougham-street, Belfast." 



That the Society will have the support, moral and pecuniary, of the 

 majority of Fern cultivators in the three Kingdoms may be safely pre- 

 dicted. Such a society was wanted ; for, as remarked in the article from 

 which we quoted at starting, " there is no department of domestic plant- 

 culture more in need of elucidation than that of Fern growing, and the 

 use of Wardian cases, for the Filices are daily becoming more popular ; 

 every lover of plants gives some attention to them, they figure largely at 

 flower shows, both as objects of competition, and as means of decorating 

 the tables, and the day may not be far distant " — the day has arrived. 

 Lovers of Ferns, place the Belfast Wardian Society firmly on its feet, and 

 then see about imitating here the example set you in the sister island. 



^ The Crystal Palace is now all ablaze with colour and redolent of perfume. 

 From the corridor to the tropical end of the nave, vegetation shows not merely 

 the fresh hues and delicate beauties of spring, but in the forwardness of many 

 of the grand flowering trees and shrubs, it is almost summer there. The aca- 

 cias are tricked out in their delicate buttons of cream, yellow, and white, the 

 orange trees have here and there a ripe orange of last year left on them, and 

 their foliage glistens with health and vigour. The basins about the fountains 

 brim over with hyacinths, cinerarias, cytisuses, azaleas, and primulas, and as 

 for the rhododendrons and camellias, the whole nave glows with them like a 

 Cape bush country, and the spectacle is really gorgeus. On the 15th we 



