134 REMARKS ON GROWING PLANTS IN GLASS CASES. 



during the whole period ; nor was the door of the case opened, but to 

 remove a dead leaf or plant that had damped off. Once only was the 

 cover taken off, in order to check the Lycopodium stoloniferum, which 

 had grown so luxuriantly as to shade and injure the other plants. 



Incident which suggested the Invention of the Case ; with Remarks 

 on the Mode in xohich a Smohy Atmosphere proves injurious to 

 Vegetation. 



Having thus described the apparatus in which the plants were con- 

 fined, the soil in which they have been grown, and the progress they 

 have made under the peculiar conditions in which they have been 

 subjected to the combined action of the several agents concerned in 

 promoting vegetation, it is proposed next to consider how plants na- 

 turally inhabiting such different climes, and possessing such different 

 characters, should be able, not only thus to live together, but to flou- 

 rish in circumstances foreign, in many respects, to the native habits 

 of all. Perhaps the best mode of dealing with this question will be, 

 to compare briefly the conditions to which they are submitted in these 

 close cases, with those to which they are naturally exposed in the 

 free atmosphere. 



Before entering on this investigation, it may not, however, be out 

 of place to advert to the origin of the invention which has just been 

 described. From his early youth Mr. Ward had been attached to 

 botanical pursuits ; but, living in a situation enveloped in the smoke 

 of numerous manufactories, he had been compelled to give up the 

 cultivation of plants, after many unavailing trials. At length, a simple 

 incident put him on new experiments, and led him gradually to the 

 results we are about to detail. He had buried the chrysalis of a 

 sphinx in some moist mould, which was contained in a wide-mouthed 

 glass bottle, covered with a lid. In watching the bottle from day to 

 day, he observed that the moisture, which, during the heat of the 

 day, rose from the mould, became condensed on the inner surface of 

 the glass, and again fell back to the mould, so as to keep it always in 

 a state equally moist. About a week prior to the final change of the 

 insect, a seedling fern and grass appeared on the surface of the mould. 

 After having secured the insect, Mr. Ward set himself to watch the 

 developement of these plants in such a confined situation. He placed 

 the bottle on the outside of the window of his study, where the plants 



