Plant-growing in Wardian Cases. 119 



ones who may have passed away, or parted from us for 

 awhile, leaving us the remembrance of the busy hands 

 and loving voices that made life so pleasant for us in 

 the past in helping to tend the pretty flowers now left 

 as a sole remembrancer of their once happy presence. 

 Every plant in our home will have its own histdry, its 

 own pleasant associations. Every bud, leaf, and frond, 

 will be dear to us, having watched them forming one 

 by one and expanding in the light. 



The most successful and interesting way for amateur 

 cultivators to grow ferns is by means of the Wardian 

 case. In it they can either be grown in pots or planted 

 out on rockwork. The moist atmosphere and protec- 

 tion they enjoy when grown under glass is the nearest 

 assimilation to their natural requirements to which we 

 can attain. Under a case, if proper care and attention 

 be bestowed on them they develope their natural graces 

 to a greater extent than when growing in their wild 

 state. Many other plants can be grown in conjunction 

 with them, giving an interesting variety to the general 

 arrangement. 



I remember once being sent to rearrange a Wardian 

 case for a lady. Some fresh Ferns were to be added, 

 and others shifted into bigger pots, but what took my 

 attention more than anything was a luxuriant plant of 

 Stephenoiis floribunda, the very picture of health, 

 covering the entire roof of the case in many twining 

 folds. The Ferns and mosses underneath it seemed to 

 enjoy the shade provided for them by their robust 

 neighbour. I was told the Stephenotis had never once 

 flowered, although it had been in the case for some 



