FURNISHING AND FIXING CONTINUED. 91 



plants, but they are quite to small for our ambition 

 more like an inverted goblet than a Wardian Case. And 

 yet our case is not so desperate as to exclude all hope of 

 suitable cases for our plants. If the regular manufactur- 

 ers will not or can not supply a cheaper kind for popular 

 use, we can turn manufacturers -our selves, as some of my 

 neighbors have done, with no other cost than that of ma- 

 terials. At least we can plan and superintend the manu- 

 facture, bearing in mind that the Wardian Case, pure 

 and simple, is only a suitable glass box inverted over a 

 suitable/ 4 garden box." 



Here is a plan, "respectfully submitted," which any 

 cabinet-maker or joiner perhaps that "big brother" 

 can easily translate from the ideal to the real : The 

 frame for the glass to be made of black walnut, or even 

 of pine, as light as is possible with strength sufficient to 

 hold the glass together the corner and top parts about 

 an inch thick and rounded outside, and the bottom part 

 somewhat heavier, like that of a window-sash size 

 inside, 30 inches long, 15 wide, and 18 high, requiring 

 two panes of glass, 15 by 18 inches, two, 30 by 18, and 

 one, 30 by 15 the glass to be set with putty so as to 

 leave as little as possible of the wood exposed to the 

 moist air of the case, and the top pane to be hinged or 

 left movable for convenient access to the inside. The 

 base, or "garden-box," to be of the same kind of wood 

 and of the same size outside, with a moulding projecting 

 half an inch above the upper edge to hold the glass frame 

 firmly in place to be six inches deep and lined wit-h 

 zinc, which should overlap the upper edges so as to catch 

 any drip of moisture from the glass, and have at the 

 bottom for drainage outlet a small tube closed with cork 

 the whole to rest on legs or a table fitted with casters. 



If you find it inconvenient to purchase the more costly 

 and elaborate sort, this "home-made" case, or even a 

 much cheaper one, with small panes of glass in a pine 



