326 How io Make a Fern Case. 



be carpeted with the prettiest mosses you can find, and enlivened with 

 the red fruit of the Partridge Berry, or Squaw Berry {Afitckella)^ 

 and the Checkerberry, or Ivory ( Gaultheria)^ the former desirable also 

 for its neat foliage and pretty, white, twin blossoms, and the latter for 

 its glossy leaves. Both have long, creeping, under-ground stems, from 

 which the roots proceed. 



Now for planting these in the case. Fill the pan half full of pieces 

 of charcoal, as large as you can put in without getting it too full, and 

 mix in some smaller pieces, but no fine coal or dust. The plants and 

 moss may be placed directly on the charcoal, without any more soil than 

 adheres to them in digging up ; but if you like better to have them 

 growing in soil, bring home some from the woods, such as you find 

 them growing in naturally. When all are planted, make the soil ?noist^ 

 but not wet, and it will need no more care for a long time, except to 

 remove any insects, snails, etc., which may be animated by the warmth. 

 Do not let it get dry ; but very likely it will not need any water for two 

 or three months. A northern window is better than one where the sun 

 will strike directly on it. Put the tallest plants in the centre of the case 

 so as to give the whole a pyramidal outline. 



If you are not sufficiently acquainted with plants to identify the com- 

 mon ones we have recommended, we advise you to go into the woods 

 and select whatever seems most beautiful and desirable for your pur- 

 pose, choosing those with graceful, light foliage in pi-eference to dark, 

 heavy leaves. We have mentioned only such as may be obtained with- 

 out money and without price ; but, of course, if you can get any choice 

 green-house ferns, we would not omit them ; or, if you can get only a 

 bit of a frond, with spores, of any such ones, it will be of much interest 

 to scatter the spores on the earth in the case, and watch their vegeta- 

 tion. It is not generall}^ known how easily and abundantly ferns are 

 produced from these minute spores ; we have seen in the moist air of 

 a hot-house the mossy outside of an inverted flower-pot covered with 

 little ferns just where the spores had fallen and lodged. 



Very pretty fern cases, consisting of circular glass shades with terra 

 cotta bases, can now be bought at the large crockery and glass stores 

 at reasonable prices, or they can be bought ready stocked at the florists ; 

 but we think our readers will find pleasure in collecting the plants, and 

 if they will follow these directions, the}^ will have, with little of trouble 

 or expense, a thing of beauty, which, if not a joy forever, will be one 

 through the desolate days of winter, until spring returns to paint the 

 earth anew with flowers. 



