Wardiafi Cases. 343 



of a Wardian case. It is a companion for all the year round, especially 

 the winter season, when ice and snow cover every thing, and the tempera- 

 ture is such outside that we cannot give air to window-plants without their 

 being frost-bitten. When things are in this apparently dead state without, 

 then it is we cherish our green spot, our miniature conservatory, as it were : 

 we can here sit down and spend hours watching the graceful forms and 

 delicate fronds as they come up ; or with the microscope, that wonderful 

 instrument which leads us as it were beyond the beautiful into the mysteri- 

 ous workings of Providence, we can examine the fern-spore, the origin of 

 the plant, which to the naked eye is the veriest dust, but now brought out 

 clear, and its organism defined. Who would not exchange their bare 

 stalks and a few tufts of leaves for a case so easily made, so easily taken 

 care of? A few words on the material for their construction. Wood, 

 glass, and zinc are the best articles. A case made from pine-wood var- 

 nished, with a zinc pan for the earth, will answer the amateur's purpose as 

 well as an expensive or elaborately-carved one. A good proportion for a 

 Wardian case is, length twenty-four inches, width eighteen inches, height 

 twenty inches : this will allow five inches for the depth of the zinc pan, 

 and give fifteen inches for the glass. The simplest and perhaps best form 

 is the double cube ; but cases can be made square, octagonal, or round, 

 ornamented to suit the taste or means of the person. ' A glass shade placed 

 over an earthen pan will answer as well as a large or ornamented case ; 

 although the latter we think more entitled to a place in the drawing-room 

 or library than much of the furniture of the present day. The case, cer- 

 tainly, would be ornamental, and who can doubt that it would be instruc- 

 tive? Start with the right principles, and you can choose your own form 

 and size. 



In England, where the Wardian case had its origin, and at Kew Gardens, 

 that monument of skill and enterprise, they follow out these principles as 

 a general thing ; and I am sure experience will prove them to be correct. 

 The raising of ferns from the spores is easily accomplished in an air-tight 

 case, and of this and other points relating to the " stocking and manage- 

 ment " of these cases we shall speak in another number. 



