X. 
MINIATURE GREENHOUSES. 
Greenhouse is a comprehensive term, and may mean a 
pretentious edifice partly of glass, heated with pipes, and 
filled with flourishing plants, or it may mean only a bit of 
“imprisoned summer / 5 of which a writer says : “I take a 
common-sized soup plate and place in the bottom a layer 
of pounded charcoal, over which I place the mold which I 
bring from the woods* then a layer of green moss* and the 
ferns and plants. I sprinkle it well, and cover with a ten- 
inch glass, and I have * imprisoned summer 5 all the year 
round . 55 
This is a Wardian case on a small scale, but certainly 
more imposing than the first one, which consisted of a 
raised-by-accident fern and a grass grown on a moldy 
chrysalis in a glass bottle. The Wardian case proper is 
really a small greenhouse, with the advantage of being 
movable ; and is intended to secure moisture to its inhab¬ 
itants and to protect them from dust. It is no longer 
considered indispensable to have it air-tight, as in the 
original. 
All sizes and shapes of Wardian cases are to be seen. 
Small ones can be made at home with large panes of glass 
and an old tray or a piece of wood for the base, and very 
elaborate ones can be bought for a large sum of money. 
The most satisfactory one, perhaps, is of moderate size, with 
a base of pottery and a neat table to support it, and this 
