110 
FEBFY COMBES. 
much 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, instead of being in 
pots, are planted in the mould with which the bot¬ 
tom 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 
Lolypodimn Lryopteris and Allosorus crisp us that 
I carried about for three weeks. 
The best ferns for close cases are, in my opinion, 
those of small size. The lesser Lastrea reeurva , 
and the elegant Lastrea dilatata nana , not above 
four inches high, which grows on the walls of Ex¬ 
moor and near Ilfracombe ; Asplenium Trichomanes, 
