FERN-CASES. 95 



gentle circulation outward, will supply all that 

 is necessary. Too much air is as bad as too 

 little : so, like every thing else connected with 

 fern or plant culture, judgment must be used. It 

 is absurd to try to grow plants by an inexorable 

 rule, without varying their treatment according to 

 the circumstances and requirements of each ; just 

 as the same inflexible system would fail to succeed 

 with children of different constitutions and capaci- 

 ties. If a person, moreover, has no love for plants, 

 no intuitive sense of how to manage them, he will 

 undertake a hopeless task in the endeavor to culti- 

 vate them because it is fashionable, or because of 

 their artistic effect in the house. 



A kind of combined greenhouse and fernery is 

 sometimes made by devoting an entire window 

 to this purpose, either by constructing a "bay," 

 or building up on the inside an enclosure suffi- 

 ciently deep to hold as many plants as are desired. 

 Ventilation or heat can be supplied by openings 

 near the top and bottom. A zinc pan will be 

 needed on the floor, and some little distance up 

 the sides, to catch superfluous water, which now 

 and then can be drawn off through a pipe and 

 faucet from the lowest corner, and opening into 

 the room, levies, climbing-plants, and plants in 

 hanging-baskets, flourish well in such a place, as 

 do also all ferns which would be suitable for a 

 large fernery. The inner glass should be set in 



