38 THE IMITATION, IN CLOSED CASES, OF 
ever, I procured for the purpose of experiment 
some plants of Trichomanes and Hymenophyllum, 
and perhaps the most instructive way in which I 
can communicate the results of my experiments 
will he to select a few out of numberless experi- 
ments, in. the order in which they occurred. To 
commence with — 
1. Trichomanes radicans or speciosum. — I was 
induced to commence with this, the most lovely 
of our cellular plants, in consequence of its being 
the most intractable under ordinary methods of 
culture — of its being, in fact, the opprobium hor- 
tulanorum. Loddiges, who had it repeatedly, 
never could keep it alive ; and Baron Fischer, the 
superintendent of the botanical establishments 
of the Emperor of Russia, when he saw the plant 
growing in one of my cases, took off his hat, 
made a low bow to it, and said, “ You have been 
my master all the days of my life.” Whence 
then arises the great difficulty of cultivating this 
plant ? It is simply owing to the occasional 
dryness of the atmosphere, and the presence of 
adventitious matters. Place the plant in one of 
my cases, where it has a constantly pure and 
humid atmosphere, and it will grow as well in 
the most smoky parts of London, as on the rocks 
at Killarney, or the laurel forests of Teneriffe — 
44 Miraturque novas frondes.” 
