118 GBEENHOUSE FEENS, 



savage and the civilised man. The one lives and feeds like a 

 mere animal, whilst the other labours with his mind and hand, 

 and lays up stores to supply his wants at all times and seasons. 

 In the highest state of civilisation, man not only grows food, 

 but also cultivates some plants merely for their perfume or for 

 their beauty. Such as produce showy, sweet flowers, are the 

 first that he esteems : hence we see cottagers men without 

 book-learning or science cultivate as flowers such things as 

 the Stock and the Wallflower; whilst others, possessing a 

 knowledge of the beautiful flowers and fruits of foreign lands, 

 and having wealth to carry out the power of cultivating them, 

 collect together plants from all parts of the world. Then the 

 mystery we have already spoken of appears. 



The man of thought and science finds that some plants are 

 more impatient of cold than others, and wonders why it is so ; 

 but finding it is so, he understands that he must adopt some 

 means of protecting them, or, rather, he must create, as it 

 were, an artificial temperature and dwelling 'for them: hence 

 we have our stoves, our greenhouses, and pits, to suit plants of 

 every clime. This provision of suitable habitations for plants 

 has made rapid strides of late years. We have now not only 

 the stove for tropical plants generally, but we have also houses 

 for peculiar tribes of plants such, for instance, as the Orchid- 

 house, the Palm-house, &c. ; then, again, the greenhouse, 

 which, when we were boys, contained every plant requiring 

 its protection crowded together in it. Now, as the science 

 of culture has advanced, it is found necessary to have separate 

 greenhouses for single families of plants, such as Heaths, 

 Pelargoniums, Camellias, Azaleas, and that large assemblage 

 termed New-Holland plants. 



Then, again, it is found desirable to grow the tribe of 

 plants we have now under our notice namely, Ferns, in a 

 separate house, though, from their peculiar habit of growing 

 in the shade, many of them can be cultivated tolerably well 

 amongst other plants, in such positions ii the shade where the 



