272 ARRANGEMENT OF PLANTS GROWN IN WARDIAN CASES. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARRANGEMENT AND 

 MANAGEMENT OF PLANTS GROWN IN WARDIAN 



CASES. 



BST MR. WILLIAM CHITTY, FLORIST, OF STAMFORD-HILL, NEAB LONDON. 



The remark occurring in the course of the observations upon Wardian 

 Cases, in your last Number of the Feoricultural Cabinet, that 

 " much may be done in a small Case by a little management," is 

 exemplified in the multitude of instances in which collections of plants 

 are so successfully cultivated in them. The difficulty appears to be 

 with the possessors of these cases, as with the possessors of larger means, 

 to repress a de>ire to grow everything in them. Hence we very often 

 find the most perfect incongruity in the arrangement of them ; plants 

 of large and vigorous growth overrunning and obscuring those of 

 humbler and more fragile habit. For instance, in a Case containing 

 Ferns it is not unusual to see such gems as Asplenium septentrionale, 

 A. fontanum, Cryptogramma crispa, Lycopodium alpina, &c, overrun 

 and destroyed by such comparatively ungainly plants as Scolopendrium 

 officinarum, Aspidium, Felix femina, &c. Whereas, the situation of the 

 Case being favourable, these smaller things would display themselves to 

 much greater advantage if the whole area were appropriated to them 

 by a judicious arrangement of the surface of the mould. And very 

 often, in addition to the large plants above mentioned, Lycopodium 

 stoloniferum, L. denticulatum, and L. purpureum, will be found inter- 

 twining themselves with everything in the Case, and by their rapid 

 and exuberant growth speedily filling up the Case, and creating an 

 excess of moisture which is often injurious in its effects upon some of 

 the smaller and more delicate things. The amount of gratification to 

 be derived from this mode of cultivating plants will be commensurate 

 with the degree of success realized, therefore, in the construction of the 

 Cases, regard must be had to the habits of the kinds it is intended to 

 grow. If it is intended to have a collection of the small plants first 

 mentioned above (I confine my remarks to Ferns, for the sake of 

 simplicity, the same observations will apply to other classes of plants), a 

 small Case, ten inches in height, with a flat glass top, would be 

 sufficiently high, the area laid out in miniature rock-ivork, and the 

 plants inserted in it judiciously would produce a most pleasing effect. 

 It would add greatly to the charm of such an arrangement to have 

 suspended in diminitive rustic pots or baskets, from some wires inserted 

 in the top, plants of some of the neater-growing Lycopodiums, as they 

 harmonize better with the foliage of the Ferns than Cactuses, Sedums, 

 Stapelias, and other similar things very often associated with them. 

 Lycopodium denticulatum, L. stoloniferum, and L. purpureum, pro- 

 duce the most pleasing effect, when suffered to run wild in a glass by 

 themselves. And in order to their full development, and an effective 

 display of their noble fronds, the larger Ferns will require ample room. 

 But in penning the above remarks I have quite gone astray from the 

 object I proposed to myself when I sat down, which was, to remark on 

 the composition of the soil I have found the most useful in the culture 

 of plants in these Cases. These I must reserve for the next Number. 





