110 
TEENY COMBES. 
mucli again. If you stand your plants on a round 
tin tray, to prevent the moisture spoiling anything 
on which they are placed, and cover them over with 
your glass, you will, at the expense of a few shil- 
lings, have a miniature greenhouse, which will give 
you much amusement. You should occasionally 
take off the glass and water the plants, being care- 
ful not to let them get too damp, as the crown is 
apt to decay. 
This is an inexpensive “ closed case.” Those who 
have money to spare may, for thirty shillings or two 
pounds, have a Wardian case, in fact a miniature 
covered garden, for the ferns, which, instead of 
being in pots, are planted in the mould with which 
the bottom or tray is filled. 
It is much more pleasant to collect one’s own 
plants than to buy them ; and if you are provided 
with that indispensable requisite “ a tin case,” that 
is, an oblong tin box which closes tightly, you may 
take plants any distance. I have now plants of 
Polyjpodium Dryopteris and Allosorus crispus that 
I carried about for three weeks. 
The best ferns for close cases are, in my opinion, 
those of small size. The lesser Lastrea recurm^ 
and the elegant Lastrea dilatata nana, not above 
four inches high, which grows on the walls of Ex- 
moor and near Ilfracombe ; Asplenium Trichoma/nes, 
