MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



drainage hole, beneath which is placed an 

 earthen saucer. Fitting upon this tray is a 

 glazed case with top sloping to the sun, and 

 with its quoins and edges covered with bark, 

 and embossed with acorn-cups— to correspond 

 with the base. The fitting is not altogether 

 so perfect as that of a Wardian case, but quite 

 sufficient for all practical purposes. 



Throughout the summer I keep this little 

 window-garden stocked with the most brilliant 

 of the wood mosses; a slight sprinkling once 

 in thirty days keeps them in admirable order; 

 and if I come upon some chrysalis in the gar- 

 den whose family is unknown, I have only to 

 lodge it upon my bed of mosses, and in due 

 time I have a butterfly captive for further 

 examination. As the frosts approach I throw 

 out my mosses, and re-stock my garden with 

 fragrant violets and a few ferns. These keep 

 up a lusty garden show until January, when 

 again I change the order of my captives — this 

 time incorporating a large share of sand with 

 the earth in the tray— and setting in it all my 

 needed cuttings of Verbenas, of Fuchsias, and 

 of Carnations. They thrive under the glass 

 magically; and by early March are so firm- 

 rooted and rampant in growth, that I can pot 

 them, for transfer to a fresh-laid pit out of 



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