FERN-CASES. 



91 



As a general thing, very large cases are more 

 difficult to manage than smaller ones. There is a 

 possibility of getting them too large. To counter- 

 act some of the troubles which attend over-sized 

 ferneries, they are sometimes artificially heated. 

 This may be done by applying heat to pans of 

 water in which the fern-pan is placed, or by coils 

 of piping passing under and around the pan. The 

 water in either case may be warmed by a lamp or 

 stove outside, or connected with the water-heating 

 apparatus of the dwelling. The writer has had no 

 experience with cases so warmed ; but, in his 

 judgment, coil-heating is to be preferred, as it will 

 render it less troublesome to move the case, and 

 as the drainage of the fernery can be better 

 effected between the heating-pipes at the bottom 

 than through a reservoir of warmed water which 

 covers the entire under surface of the case. Shir- 

 ley Hibberd, in "The Fern Garden," proposes a 

 plan for draining a fernery warmed in the latter 

 way ; but the coil system seems the best. All 

 this piping should be done by an experienced 

 plumber, as it requires considerable skill so to 

 adjust every thing that the water shall flow with 

 regularity. Mr. W. H. Halliday of West Street, 

 Boston, has given much attention to the construc- 

 tion of fern -cases, having dealt in them for 

 several years. In a paper read before the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society in January, 1876, 



