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APPENDIX. 
long-cherished favourites, hut he says not a word. 
In the evening a largish box arrives directed to 
the fair patient, and superscribed ‘ keep this side 
uppermost, with care.’ There is more than com- 
mon interest on box-opening in the sick chamber. 
After a little tender hammering, and tiresome 
knot-loosening, Thompson has removed the lid, 
and there lies a large oval bell-glass fixed down to 
a stand of ebony, some moist sand at the bottom, 
and here and there, over the whole surface, some 
tiny ferns are just pushing their curious little 
fronds into life, and already promise, from their 
fresh and healthy appearance, to supply in their 
growth and increase, all the beauty and interest 
of the discarded flowers, without their injurious 
effects. It is so. These delicate exotics — for 
such they are — closely sealed down in an air- 
tight world of their own, flourish with amazing 
rapidity, and in time produce seeds, which pro- 
vide a generation to succeed them. Every day 
witnessing some change, keeps the mind continu- 
ally interested in their progress, and their very 
restriction from the open air, while it renders the 
chamber wholesome to the invalid, provides at 
the same time an undisturbed atmosphere more 
suited to the development of their own tender 
frames. We need scarcely add, that the doctor, 
the next morning finds the wonted cheerful smile 
