Tr/iYi)oir GAiiDEyiyo. 
175 
55.— Aiborctte. 
In about a month or six weeks, looking carefully across the surface of the 
earth, you see the slightest specks of green; again examining with the microscope 
you find tliem living organisms of vegetation ; and when at a later dale they be- 
come of good size, it is with no little satisfaction to be able to say, that they were 
the seedlings sown by your own hand. If in your 
travels in the woods, j'ou carry an herbarium with 
you, 3'ou can gather the fronds of every vaiiety you 
meet, which contains fertile spores. 
Spores from such an herbaiium should be planted 
as soon as convenient to insure germination. Spores 
have been known to germinate as long as eighteen 
months after being gathered, while under favorable 
circumstances germination in spores has taken place, 
when sown eight or ten years after they were col- 
lected. From your spores you will get a quantit}^ of 
seedlings, many of them of strange forms, and some to 
differ from the parent plant. 
We may find frequently several fronds on the same 
plant diilering very materially. Thus your love and knowledge of plant life in- 
creases, and you willl cherish your fern case with more than customary pleasure, 
for it opens up a new world to you. 
One thing only remember i. e., keep out of your fern case all the common bed- 
ding plants, such as Geraniums, Petunias, Verbenas, Roses, Fuschias, &c., for they 
cannot well stand the confined moist air. 
Designs for Fern Decorations. 
A home made plant case can be constructed as fol- 
lows: Get your carpenter or cabinet maker to con- 
struct a shallow box, of fine wood, say black walnut, 
about two feet wide, and three or three and one-half ' 
feet long. The bottom board should be about an inch 
and a half thick, and project about an inch beyond 
the sides. The sides should be of inch stuff, and the 
depth six or seven inches. See that the corners are 
well dovetailed together, and on the inside of the tops 
cut a groove, into which to set the glass. 
The size of your ■l.iss should be about two feet 
square for the en i>. and two feet by thirty-six 
inches for the sides ai.d top; but if this is too large and expensive a case, 
you can construct one of but half these dimensions, viz., twelve inches square 
for the ends and twelve by eighteen inches for the sides and top. Many 
like to have their cases made for them with pitched roof, like design No 
Fig. 56.— Feiiis in Arborette. 
