174 



WIXDOW GARDENING. 



After jou have put the plants in the case, water with a small watering pot 

 with a fine nose. Satui'ate the earth prettj'- thoroughl}', but not to make it 

 muddy. There are many otlier varieties of the Lycjodiums not mentioned above. 

 Lygodium, Apodum, deiisum, caesium, arboreum, lipidophyllum, their roots will 

 extend over the earth, covering all the bare spots with a fiesh green carpet of 

 delicate growth. 



Should we be able to procure a plant of the greenhouse species of climbing 

 fern, Lygodium flexuosum, or L. japonicum, another beautiful object will be 

 added. 



Among the climbing ferns, are some of the most graceful ferns in the whole 

 family of Filices. There is one plant, however, not a fern, which does exceed- 

 ingly well in a fern case, and is remarkably interesting. We refer to Ficus Stip- 

 ulata. This plant, a vine, is a free grower, and climbs up the sides of our case 

 by its roots, which, aided by the moistui-e on the i>lass, spread and adhere to it. 



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Fig. .^4.— Plaut Caso. 



It is a hard wooded plant, roots quickly from cuttings, and grows so freely as to 

 fill a moderate sized case very rapidl}^. 



After you have become accustomed to growing ferns in the case, you will per- 

 haps crave a little variety. This can be easily had. Suppose you look a little 

 into the curiosities of growth and reproduction. 



If you look on the under side of the fern fronds, you will find something re- 

 sembling a brown powder, adhering to them thickly in regularly distributed 

 masses of varied shapes, depending upon the species. 



Examining with the magnifier or microscope, you find them to be seeds or 

 spores. 



Shake these spores, which appear like the veriest dust, over the surface of the 

 earth in an ordinary fern case, after it has been well smoothened. The earth 

 should be watered very thoroughly previous to scattering the spores 



