WINDOW GARDENING. 



175 



In about a month or six weeks, looking carefully across the surface of the 

 earth, you see the slightest specks of green; again examining with the microscope 

 you find them living organisms of vegetation ; and when at a later date they be- 

 come of good size, it is with no little satisfaction to be able to say, that they were 

 the seedlings sown by your own hand. If in your 

 travels in the woods, you carry an herbarium with 

 you, you can gather the fronds of every variety you 

 meet, which contains fertile spores. 



Spores from such an herbarium should be planted 

 as soon as convenient to insure germination. Spores 

 have been known to germinate as long as eighteen 

 months after being gathered, while under favorable 

 circumstances germination in spores has taken place, 

 when sown eight or ten years after they were col- 

 lected. From your spores you will get a quantity of 

 seedlings, many of them of strange forms, and some to 

 differ from the parent plant. 



We may find frequently several fronds on the same Fig. 55. Arborette. 



plant differing very materially. Thus your love and knowledge of plant life in- 

 creases, and you willl cherish your fern case with more than customary pleasure, 

 for it opens up a new world to you. 



One thing only remember i. e., keep out of your fern case all the common bed- 

 ding plants, such as Geraniums, Petunias, Verbenas, Roses, Fuschias, &c., for they 

 cannot well stand the confined moist air. 



Designs for Fern Decorations. 



A home made plant case can be constructed as fol- 

 lows : Get your carpenter or cabinet maker to con- 

 struct a shallow box, of fine wood, say black walnut, 

 about two feet wide, and three or three and one-half 

 feet long. The bottom board should be about an inch 

 and a half thick, and project about an inch beyond 

 the sides. The sides should be of inch stuff, and the 

 depth six or seven inches. See that the corners are 

 well dovetailed together, and on the inside of the tops 

 cut a groove, into which to set the glass. 



The size of your glass should be about two feet 

 square for the ends, and two feet by thirty-six 

 inches for the sides and top; but if this is too large and expensive a case, 

 you can construct one of but half these dimensions, viz., twelve inches square 

 for the ends and twelve by eighteen inches for the sides and top. Many 

 like to have their cases made for them with pitched roof, like design No 



Fig. S6. Ferns in Arborette. 



