60 ALPINE OR ROCK PLANTS. 



a flower basket. The glass case above, to be of 

 such dimensions and form as will suit the plants 

 grown in it, with one or two of the panes on hinges, 

 to admit access, when necessary. Little attention, 

 however, is necessary, after the plants have been 

 placed in it and thoroughly watered; as Dr. Ward 

 grew, for several years together, various plants, 

 without once watering or admitting free air. Care 

 should also be taken to secure proper drainage, by 

 a good layer of broken pots and moss at the bottom 

 of the case. 



The success of this method seems to be, first, the 

 effectual manner in which fuliginous (sooty) matter 

 and dust is excluded from the plants, both of which 

 are great barriers to growing them in towns, as the 

 pores of the leaves (the vegetable lungs) are com- 

 pletely closed by their presence ; and second, the 

 still atmosphere and equal temperature which they 

 experience when thus enclosed. Various tribes of 

 plants have been grown in these cases with more 

 or less success; but it seems best adapted for those 

 whose natural habitats are in shaded or moist loca- 

 lities, and we know that many of our Alpine and 

 Rock-plants are of such a description. Nothing 

 can exceed the beauty of some of the minuter Ferns 

 and Lycopodia when thus grown. For further par- 

 ticulars, however, I must refer to Dr. Ward's trea- 

 tise, and various articles which have appeared in 

 the Horticultural Magazines and Newspapers. In the 

 latter, I frequently see advertisements from trades- 



