How to Make a Fern Case. 325 



wide and long enough to go into the case. Have a hole made in the 

 middle of each end near the upper edge, so as to hook in a bent wire 

 to lift the pan out of the case, else you may find it difficult to get it out 

 when you want to. 



Now we are ready to select the plants. What shall they be? Our 

 advice is to go into the woods and select the' prettiest ferns and other 

 plants that you can find, and you cannot do better if you search the 

 whole world over. First of all are the pretty native Maiden Hair 

 ferns, as pretty as the Adlantidn Farleyense^ which costs from one to 

 three guineas a root. Then the Bunch of Grapes fern, in its different 

 forms, especially the beautiful dlssectum^ are worthy of a place any- 

 where. The Camptosortis^ or Walking-leaf fern, so-called, because 

 the long narrow point of the leaf roots at the end, and gives rise to 

 a new plant, ready to take another step in advance, is a curious and 

 interesting species. Do not omit, if you can possibly get it, the Rattle- 

 snake Plantain, or Adder's Tongue as it is sometimes called ( Good- 

 yera pubescens)., with its dark-green foliage veined with white, one of 

 the most beautiful of all variegated-leaved plants, and found growing 

 abundantly in the woods of New England. It is no better or worse for 

 having been figured in the Flore des Serres ; but perhaps some of our 

 readers who have looked on it as a common plant, of little beauty, may 

 prize it more for knowing that M. Van Houtte has illustrated it in that 

 magnificent work, along with the choicest glories of the vegetable king- 

 dom. The different native Lycopodiztms^ — Z.. dendroideum^ commonly 

 called Ground Pine, and used so largely by florists for giving verdure 

 to their winter bouquets, as well as the less common L. lucidulum^ — are 

 desirable ; and if you can get from a florist or from a friend any of the 

 green-house species, they will give elegance to your collection. Piue or 

 hemlock, or arbor vitiE seedlings, from one to two years old, make a 

 pretty variety, and the Lawson's Cypi'ess, if attainable, is still more 

 beautiful. If you want trailing vines, the Lysimachia, ox Moneywort, 

 and the Coliseum Ivy {Liitaria)^ are eligible, the latter much the more 

 delicate of the two. We should not advise many flowering plants, but 

 the Hepatica, or Liverwort, will be at home among the plants we have 

 mentioned, and a few bulbs of Dog's Tooth Violet, called, also. Adder's 

 Tongue (^Erythro7iiui}i)^ should be secured, not so m.uch for the flowers 

 as for the leaves, whose green is strikingly blotched with brown. It will 

 be worth while to try that most beautiful of all the wild spring flowers, 

 the Mayflower, Trailing Arbutus, or Ground Laurel {^Epigcea repens). 

 A single plant of each of the kinds named will pretty well fill up a case 

 of the size we have supposed ; but the spaces between the plants may 



