THE WARDIAN CASE . 
37 
more under personal control, allowing the temperature 
to be raised or lowered, and various delicate experiments 
to be made which would be a physical impossibility in 
an outdoor fernery, or even in a green or hot house. Very 
small ferns, such as the Tunbridge Film Fern, are perhaps 
better isolated according to their size in separate pots, 
covered with bell-glasses; but for ferns from five to twelve 
or fourteen inches growth, a Wardian case as follows 
will be found preferable; they may be constructed of 
every shape and size according to the taste or means of 
the grower. A convenient size suitable for nearly every 
window (see title-page), three feet long, two feet 
high, and one foot wide. At the bottom of this case a 
box lined with glass or slate, the latter being the best, 
having a small hole with india-rubber tube to carry off 
waste drainage. The box is covered for about two inches 
with rough stones or broken earthenware, then about 
two inches of turf-soil, covered with four or five inches 
of a mixture of peat, sand, and rich garden-soil. This 
composition is of course intended to represent as far as 
possible a natural fertile soil, suitable for the growth of 
most ferns (see title-page). Over this box is fitted a 
