August 8, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



101 



without a proper outlet for water the oases soon become per- 

 fectly sodden. I have seen more plants destroyed in cases 

 from the want of drainage and from overwatering than from 

 any other cauBe. Most of the failures I have met with have 

 arisen from either too much water or too little light, and fre- 

 quently both combined, although the personB having them in 

 charge have strenuously denied that any more water had been 

 used than the plants required, and have insisted that they 

 were placed in a very light situation. The light situation is 

 usually quite a dark one — generally a space between two 

 windows, with a dead wall behind it, or in a corner receiving 

 a little light obliquely from a window 2 or 3 feet distant. 

 When the plants are turned out it is found that they have 

 been treated as aquatics, and kept fairly up to their knees in 

 mud and water. Then people wonder at their want of success. 



The Hanging Febnery was my first attempt in this direc- 

 tion. I designed it to take the place of the hanging basket, 

 which so seldom appears in good condition in the home. The 

 case was turned from walnut, several pieces being glued and 

 nailed together to get the proper depth, and also to keep the 

 wood from warping. It tapered to a point at the bottom, to 

 give lightness to its appearance. A zmc pan with a rim to 

 receive the shade fitted the case loosely enough to be readily 

 removed when watering was necessary. This case as firBt con- 

 structed was covered with a shade 8 inches in diameter and 

 10 inches high, and was suspended by silvered copper wire. 

 The case first exhibited in this hall in June, 1871, had a shade 

 12 inches in diameter and 14 inches high ; was elaborately 

 turned from maple and walnut, ornamented with ebony 

 trimmings, and filled with the following named plants : — 

 Onychium japonieum, Adiantum aseimile, A. cuneatum, Sela- 

 ginella Wildenovii, Panicum variegatum, Fittonia Pearcei, 

 F. argyroneura, Lycopodium denticulatum var., and Mltchella 

 repens, some Lichens and Wood Mosses. It was awarded the 

 Society's silver medal. 



This case when taken from the hall was suspended in my 

 window, where it received the morning sun for about an hour 

 each day, and was not disturbed again till January, excepting 

 when it was occasionally turned to the light. It was then a 

 mass of green. *■ I noticed considerable soil on the glass, carried 

 up by Blugs in their nocturnal rambles ; also some decayed 

 fronds of the Adiantum. Altogether it was as much of a suc- 

 cess as a close case could be, and would probably satisfy most 

 people who grow plants for home decoration. 



There are some plants that seem better suited to a close 

 case than to any other situation. They are confined chiefly 

 to the Lycopods and Selaginellas. Many of them are very 

 beautiful, rivalling, and in some cases closely resembling, 

 their allies the Ferns in beauty of form and delicate feathery 

 appearance. They make superb specimens grown singly under 

 a shade; and I consider this the most satisfactory way to 

 grow them, having the case large enough to fully develope 

 their beauty of form and habit. Their growth is generally 

 quite rapid, and to anyone who delights in a well-grown plant 

 the culture is worth trial. Selaginella Lyallii, S. africana, 

 S. plumosa, S. umbrosa, and S. triangularis make quite large 

 plants and are erect in habit. There are many others usually 

 found in plant catalogues, and as far as I have tested them 

 all are eminently fitted for close cases, and their growth is 

 much more rapid than when grown outside. I usually com- 

 bine them with Ferns in the arrangement of a case, and t hin k 

 the effect is much better for the combination. 



The Fittonias are another class of plants which are favour- 

 ites with me. Their bright crimson and silver veinings are a 

 great acquisition to the fernery, lighting it up wonderfully, 

 and seemingly never out of place, no matter what the size of 

 the case may be. They also make superb plants by themselves. 

 I once had a plant of F. gigantea which filled a shade 12 incheB 

 in diameter and 14 inches high. It was the finest plant of 

 the kind I ever met with. Its habit became erect, and the 

 colour of the foliage seemed very much more brilliant than 

 we ordinarily find it. But the variety is too coarse to be 

 grown satisfactorily with small Ferns. The Wardian case is 

 the more suitable place for it. F. Pearcei is the best for all 

 purposes ; being a vigorous grower a mere scrap Eoon produces 

 a good plant, and it will live under almost any treatment in 

 a close case. Its habit is not so recumbent as when grown 

 without. F. argyroneura is very beautiful, but it has one 

 fault—that of damping-off when it is chilled, thus spoiling it 

 for winter use, unless in a very warm situation : but it is just 

 the plant for summer use. There are so few plants of a white 

 or Bilvery appearance suitable for this purpose, that I use the 



Fittonia argoroneura as long as the foliage will hang together, 

 and then replace it with something else. 



A few weeks since I had the good fortune to be shown a 

 plant of Todea superba growing in a Wardian case. The case 

 was about 2 feet square, and as many feet high, with a flat 

 top. A pan about 8 inches in diameter, filled with this truly 

 superb plant in vigorous growth, occupied the centre. Other 

 Filmy Ferns were planted out in the case ; but this, the grand 

 object of the whole, waj I'evated several inches above the 

 others, showing conspicuously its full beauty. An English 

 author 6ays of it, " Delicate and fragile, with its semi-trans- 

 parent fronds, it looks like tufts of the most beautiful seaweed 

 plucked from the decorations of a mermaid'a ocean home." I 

 have seen larger plants of this species, but none in such fine 

 condition. It was grown in a cool room near a west window, 

 the light partly obscured by a drawn shade. This plant is 

 just the thing for a large Fern shade, as it needs as little an- 

 as the Selaginellas, very little light, and a cool situation, and 

 when once established needs but little attention. The Filmy 

 Ferns are eminently fitted for growing singly in cases by them- 

 selves. The only objection is the expense of many of them, 

 but I would rather have one plant of Todea superba than 

 dozens of ordinary Ferns. 



The great difficulty I have always found in ferneries is to 

 reach the plants after they have filled or partly filled the case. 

 It is easy enough to remove the shade, but to replace it so that 

 the plants may retain their former position is not so easy. 

 This is bo with regard to delicate Ferns ; the fronds will tip 

 about, look out of place, and otherwise mar the arrangement. 

 If you could only reach them from the top all would be 

 remedied very quickly. Frequently I have been forced to 

 allow a large slug to have his own way rather than disturb the 

 shade when the case was looking well, and in many instances 

 have allowed decayed fronds to remain rather than run the 

 risk of destroying the arrangement by removing the shade. It 

 was almost as much on this account as for ventilation that 1 

 constructed the dome-top or ventilated Fern case, which is as 

 easily managed as an ordinary Wardian case. Lifting the 

 dome does not disarrange the plants, as they are all confined 

 within the cylinder, which need never be disturbed for this 

 purpose. This case is constructed as follows :— 



The case or Btand, is of wood, 6 inches deep, and resting 

 upon three small feet. There is a large opening underneath, 

 covered with a moveable sUde to admit or exclude the air. 

 It has a zinc pan one-half an inch less all round than the 

 wooden case. This half-inch space is covered all around at 

 the top of the pan, which leaves a flat surface of zinc 1 inch 

 wide, with an outside rim to receive the glass cylinder. This 

 flat surface of zinc is pierced with half-inch holes in its entire 

 circumference about 3 inches apart. When the glass cylinder 

 is in place the half-inch holes are inside the case. The cylinder, 

 of annealed glass, fits neatly into the zinc rim, and is 15 inches 

 in diameter by 14 inches in height. Encircling the upper 

 edge of the cylinder is a copper rim 1 inch wide, with edge 

 turned downward on the outside a quarter of an inch wide to 

 fit on to the cylinder. The flat surfaoe of the rim ie perforated 

 with quarter-inch holes, and the inner edge turns up a quarter 

 of an inch to receive the dome or cover, which is 8 inches high 

 and 12i inches in diameter. The holes in this copper rim are 

 on the outside, so that when the valve in the bottom of the 

 oase is open the air passes up through the holes round the 

 zinc pan and out at the copper rim. The whole case when 

 complete stands 29 inches high from the table. 



This case was first exhibited in 1873, and was filled at that 

 time with Onychium japonieum, Adiantum cuneatum, A. as- 

 simile, Panicum variegatum, Selaginella Wildenovii, S. stoloni- 

 fera, S. Martensii, Fittonia Pearcei, F. argyroneura, and Lyco- 

 podium denticulatum var. A perforated cocoanut shell filled 

 with Adiantum assimile was suspended from the top, giving 

 completeness to the whole. This case is quite an expensive 

 one, and can never become popular on that account ; but for 

 convenience in the management and culture of plants it has 

 no rival. It received the Society's silver medal at the time of 

 the first exhibition. 



Generally, too many and too large plants are crowded into 

 the fernery, giving it a heavy and unsightly appearance, and 

 filling the shade completely at the outset without room for 

 further growth. Dracaenas and other plants of this kind make 

 a fine display in the Wardian ease, but are certainly out of 

 place under a glass shade. I know it is very diffioult even for 

 those too who are not wanting in taste in other matters to 

 understand this. 



