THE LADIES’ MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
339 
any farther care or attendance. No fresh watering or airing is at any 
time required ; nor is any inconvenience experienced from dust and litter, 
which often render the ordinary mode of keeping plants in well-furnished 
apartments objectionable and troublesome. Farther, as the plants in 
this apparatus are shut off from all communication with the external air, 
no apprehension of their injuring the atmosphere, even of close rooms, 
can be reasonably entertained. The only condition, in regard to attend¬ 
ance, that claims observance, is an occasional exposure to light, perhaps 
for a short period only on days of sunshine, and for a longer one when 
the light is more feeble. These are advantages which render the method 
easily practicable by persons of every class, and will enable those who 
are condemned to live in a smoky atmosphere to refresh their sight with 
specimens of healthy vegetation within their own abodes, although the 
district around them should exhibit only the sickly and stunted forms of 
vegetable existence. 
The celebrated Franklin, who looked at everything with the eye of a 
philosopher, and sought to turn to some useful purpose every observation 
which he made, in recording the reminiscence of some common flies which 
had made a voyage from Virginia to England in a bottle of Madeira wine, 
goes on to state that a plant with its flowers fades and dies if exposed to 
the air without having its roots plunged in a humid soil, from which it 
may draw moisture to supply the waste of that which it exhales, and 
which is continually carried off by the air. Perhaps, he adds, if it were 
buried in quicksilver, it might preserve for a considerable time its 
vegetable life; and, if this be the case, it might prove a commodious 
method of transporting from distant countries those delicate plants which 
are unable to sustain the inclemency of the weather at sea. 
The ingenious suggestion of the American philosopher has been happily 
realised in practice by Mr. Ward, in a way much more simple and 
efficient than that which Franklin proposed. By its means the rarest 
and most delicate plants have been transported to and from the most 
distant countries, with little or no trouble in regard to attendance, and 
scarcely any risk of suffering from the inclemency of the weather at sea. 
He has thereby conferred on the botanist and horticulturist benefits 
which no researches of travellers, however successful, nor expenditure of 
money, however great, could have enabled them otherwise to procure. 
Instead of simple descriptions, or dried specimens, or fine pictures of 
foreign plants, they can now fix their eyes on living specimens retaining 
their native freshness and beauty, and possessing all their natural and 
characteristic properties. Already have exchanges of plants between 
distinct countries been carried on to a great extent; and the public 
