378 Mr. Ward's Plant-Cases. 



"It is a great advantage of this method," says the Garden- 

 er's Magazine, " that it may be put in practice by others, as it 

 was first by Mr. Ward himself, simply by confining a single 

 plant in a bottle, as well as by enclosing a greater number 

 in a more costly apparatus. It may therefore be practiced 

 to any extent, or adapted to any scale of expense. When 

 once fitted up, the apparatus, be it either small or large, requires 

 scarcely any further care or attendance. No fresh watering 

 or airing is at any time required ; nor is any inconvenience 

 experienced from dust or litter, which often render the ordinarv 

 mode of keeping plants in well-furnished rooms objectionable 

 and troublesome. Further, as the plants in this apparatus are 

 shut off from all communication with the external air, no appre- 

 hension of their injuring the atmosphere, even of close rooms, 

 can be reasonably entertained. The only condition that claims 

 observance, is an occasional exposure to light, perhaps for a 

 short period only, on days of sunshine, and for a longer one, 

 when the light is more feeble. 



" By means of this plan, the rarest and most delicate plants 

 have been transported to and from the most distant countries, 

 with little or no trouble in regard to attendance, and scarcely 

 any risk of suffering from the inclemency of the weather at sea. 

 It has thereby conferred on the botanist and horticulturist 

 benefits which no researches of travellers, however successful, 

 nor expenditure of money, however great, could have enabled 

 them otherwise to procure. Instead of simple descriptions or 

 dried specimens, or fine pictures of foreign plants, they can 

 now fix their eyes on living specimens retaining their fresh- 

 ness and beauty, and possessing all their natural and charac- 

 teristic properties. Already have exchanges of plants between 

 distant countries been carried on to a great extent; and the 

 public conservatories, as well as those of private individuals, 

 been enriched with specimens of many rare plants, which 

 could scarcely have reached them by any other means." 





