THE WARDIAN CASE. 233 



Patience a while, my friend; this chapter is for your 

 benefit. 



Flowers are so universally loved, and accepted every 

 where as necessities of the moral life, that whatever can 

 be done to render their cultivation easy, and to bring them 

 to perfection in the vicinity of, or within the household, 

 must be regarded as a benefaction. 



But in the midst of the smoke and dust of the city 

 there is but one way to have real verdure, in the freshness 

 of its original strength and life, and that is, by the culture 

 of it in Wardian cases. 



Not only may many ornamental plants be thus preserved 

 in full beauty in the midst of a dry, dusty atmosphere, but 

 the rarer and more delicate forms of vegetation, which 

 refuse the tenderest care under ordinary circumstances, 

 readily submit to domestication, and manifest high develop- 

 ment of beauty in these cases, if the requirements of their 

 constitutions are severally fulfilled. 



It was in the year 1829 that Mr. Ward placed the 

 chrysalis of a sphinx in some mould, in a glass bottle, 

 covered with a lid, in order to obtain a perfect specimen of 

 the insect. After a time, a speck or two of vegetation 

 appeared on the surface of the mould, and to his surprise 

 20* 



