X IN-DOOR CULTIVATION. 



ling down from elevated portions of rock, and flowing 

 out of the fern-bouse in one continuous stream. In 

 such a house each fern would find its natural position, 

 and attain a luxuriance astonishing to those who have 

 never tried the experiment. " Each fern could be 

 supplied with a proper base of earth or rock, and each 

 could have the amount of light most suited to its 

 fullest development." Mr. Ward goes on even to 

 suggest what he himself has so beautifully carried out, 

 the culture and growth of majestic tropical forms of 

 vegetation under glass covering, such as may easily be 

 constructed in a London yard. Tree-ferns, palms, and 

 the numberless variety of mosses and ferns brought 

 from distant regions, would herex flourish in their 

 native perfection. To begin, however, with something 

 much less ambitious, we will suppose that we are 

 visiting some rural district in England Devonshire 

 or the Isle of Wight, where the lanes and coppices 

 are luxuriant with the bright green fronds of familiar 

 ferns. With a trowel, or some other instrument, we 

 dig round the roots, and deeply down, so as not to 

 injure them; and, removing each specimen with a good 

 portion of its natural soil, we consign them to our 

 vasculum, until, returning to our town home, we think 

 of establishing our fern-case. The elegance of this 

 may vary, according to our means or our pleasure, the 

 humblest form being, as far as we know, as successful, 

 according to its size, as the most elaborate. The first 

 thing in any case is to secure good drainage, by one or 

 more holes at the bottom of the case ; be it either a 

 large earthen flower-saucer, a soup-plate, or a zinc 



