CHAPTER IX. 



FERN-CASES. 



|HE conservatory and the enclosed window 

 are beyond the reach of many people who 

 I love ferns, and would be glad to make 

 their homes beautiful by the cultivation of these 

 dehcate plants. The desires of such can be an- 

 swered by ferneries or Wardian-cases, which sup- 

 ply, to a sufficiently large extent and with the least 

 possible requirement of daily care, the domestic 

 means of growing ferns. In dwellings heated by 

 steam, and into which gas and furnaces have not 

 been introduced, a few species of ferns will con- 

 sent to grow at the northern windows. There is 

 so small a number of these, that they may receive 

 only this allusion. The purpose of this chapter 

 is to explain how, in spite of ''modern conven- 

 iences" and their continual war against nature, 

 we may contrive to introduce and keep a bit of 

 perpetual summer in our homes. 



The fernery, or Wardian-case as it was first 



83 



