60 REVIEWS. 



lislied in the " Companion to the Botanical Magazine " in 1836. 

 This new edition if reduced in size is increased in interest, 

 and is embellished with tasteful illustrations on wood, several 

 of them exhibiting approved forms of those glazed cases with 

 which the name of our author is inseparably connected. The 

 first chapter, on the natural conditions of plants, their rela- 

 tions to heat, light, and moisture, and the necessity of attend- 

 ing to the particular conditions, or combinations of circum- 

 stances, under which each species flourishes, is illustrated by 

 ingenious and often novel observations. The second chapter 

 treats of the causes which interfere with the natural condi- 

 tions of plants in large towns, and gives some idea of the 

 obstacles which prevent the cultivation of even ordinary 

 plants in the open air of London, and to some extent in other 

 laro-e British towns. The third, on the imitation of the nat- 

 ural conditions of plants in closely glazed cases, tells us how 

 a simple incident (the accidental growth of a seedling fern 

 and a grass in a glass bottle, in which the chrysalis of a 

 Sphinx had been buried in some moist mould), carefully and 

 wisely reflected on, taught Mr. Ward how to overcome these 

 obstacles, and thus to surround himself with his favorite 

 plants, in beautiful vegetation, while living in one of the 

 murkiest parts of London, and even to grow with complete 

 success such ferns as the Tricho-manes rad icons, which is ut- 

 terly uncultivable in any other way. A fourth chapter treats 

 of the conveyance of living plants on shipboard ; which 

 brings to view one of the most important practical applica- 

 tions of Mr. Ward's discovery. 



Sir William Hooker states that " the Wardian Cases have 

 been the means, in the last fifteen years, of introducing more 

 new and valuable plants to our gardens than were imported 

 during the preceding century ; and in the character of Domes- 

 tic Greenhouses, i. e., as a means of cultivating plants with 

 success in our parlors, our halls, and our drawing-rooms, they 

 have constituted a new era in horticulture." Formerly only 

 one plant in a thousand survived the voyage from China to 

 England. Recently, availing himself of our author's discovery, 

 Mr. Fortune planted 250 species of plants in these cases in 



