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FERNS : BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 
IV. Cultivation of Ferns in Ward’s Cases. 
I T is now thirty years since 1 was invited by Dr. 
Ward to visit him at his house in Wellclose 
Square, for the purpose of seeing plants growing 
in cases and glass jars, so closed as to be considered 
air-tight. Knowing, as I did, the common practice 
of growing plants under hand and bell-glasses, I 
therefore could not appreciate what I had gone to see 
until I was made aware that the plant-loving residents 
of such smoky and soot-falling districts of the metro- 
polis, as that of Wellclose Square, could grow rare 
and delicate plants equal to those at Kew. An 
account of this method of growing plants appeared in 
the Companion to the Botanical Magazine for 1836, and 
in April, 1838, the celebrated philosopher Mr. Faraday 
delivered a lecture at the Koyal Institution on the 
subject, which may be considered as the advent and 
introduction of Wardian cases, under which a large 
portion, and decidedly the most beautiful of the 
Fern family, are now successfully cultivated in the 
sitting-rooms of the town-confined lovers of natural 
objects. In 1842 Dr. Ward published a small work 
on the subject, giving a history and details of manage- 
ment, which renders it unnecessary for me to say more 
regarding the early history of Ward’s cases. The 
principle on which the system is founded, consists 
simply in shutting up air in glass cases, in such a 
manner that it is not readily influenced by changes 
of the external atmosphere. The case also contains 
several inches depth of moist earth, that gives off 
