50 THE IMITATION, IN CLOSED CASES, OF 
my ideas having a little expanded, I built a small 
house about eight feet square, outside one of my 
staircase-windows, facing the north ; and proceed- 
ing from ferns to those plants with which they 
are associated, filled it with a mixed vegetation. 
This was called — 
The Tintern Abbey House,* from its containing 
in the centre a small model, built in pumice and 
Bath stone, of the west window of Tintern Abbey. 
The sides were built up with rock work to the 
height of about five feet, and a perforated pipe 
passed round the top of the house, by means of 
which I could rain upon the plants at pleasure. 
In the middle of summer the sun shone into this 
house for about an hour early in the morning, 
and about the same time in the evening, but not 
at all during the winter. There was no artificial 
heat. I planted in it about fifty species of British, 
North American, and other hardy ferns — one or 
two Lycopodiums, and the following flowering 
plants, viz. Linncea borealis, Oxalis acetosella, 
Primula vulgaris, Digitalis purpurea, Cardamine 
fiexuosa, Lonicera periclymenum, Meconopsis Cam- 
brica, Geranium Robertianum v.fl. albo, Dentaria 
bulbifera, Paris quadrifolia, Mimulus moschatus, 
Linaria Cymballaria, Convallaria multiflora, C. 
Polygonatum, Lamium maculatum , and several 
* Vide Frontispiece. 
