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MY FERNERY. 
A Wardian Case, filled with exquisite Ferns of exotic 
origin, is a very beautiful object. So is an elegant 
vase of marble or terra cotta set on a classic pedestal, 
and furnished with a rich growth of state- 
ly greenhouse plants. But these articles 
are so costly that very many persons in 
the middle walks of life, who would gladly 
possess them, and who have the taste to 
ally appreciate them, must look upon 
them as wholly beyond their reach, owing 
to the slender resources of their exchequer. 
Take courage, 0 my impecunious sisters! 
It is possible for you, by the exercise of a 
little ingenuity, to find a substitute for 
these beautiful things which will cost you 
nothing, and give you quiteasmuch pleas¬ 
ure as you could derive from the others. 
Let me tell you about my “ Fernery.” 
Late in the fall I went to the woods, 
dug up a number of small Ferns of differ¬ 
ent kinds, some Linnsea, or Squanberry 
(with the red berries on), Wild Violets, 
Liverwort, Prince’s Pine, Wintergreen f£i 
(with the berries on), Galium, or Ladies’ 
Bedstraw, with its beautiful whorls of 
leaves, and other little woodland plants 
of pretty foliage, together with a sufficient 
quantity of the peaty soil they grow in, 
in which to plant them, taking care not to 
shake out any of the small roots with 
which this soil was filled. These I 
planted in nothing more stylish than an 
old tin milk-pan, painted green, raising 
the soil in the form of a little mound, and 
covering the wdiole surface between the H 
plants with a variety of lovely green 
mosses, out from which peeped here and 
there a gray lichen, or a shell-like fungus. 
This pan I placed on a little round, 
old-fashioned, three-footed stand, which 
also ha ppened to be painted green. Then 
a wire trellis was made (out of old hoop- 
skirts), painted to correspond, by which 
the edge of the table and the edge of the 
pan were connected; giving it the effect of a wire-work 
basket stand. Around this a well-grown German Ivy, 
planted close to the edge of the pan, was trained, and, 
y being carefully confined to the trellis, soon became a per- 
A GARDEN AVIARY AND BORDER OF FLOWERS, 
the little curled-up frond of a fern, ana yonder the deli¬ 
cate many-cut leaves of the Thalictrum, or Meadow 
Rue; while best and sweetest of all, the pretty May- 
, flower, or Liverwort, anticipating the springtime by four 
long months, put forth its buds, and opened its tender, 
blue-white blossom on the inclement skies of January. 
But this was not all. I had a small cast-iron vase, 
which, entre nous, had formerly adorned the top of an 
air-tight wood stove. This I had painted 
of a suitable color, and had planted there¬ 
in a running Myrtle. I took the vase 
and set it in the centre of my mossy 
mound. It was the one thing needed to 
complete the charm. The sprays of 
Myrtle, falling in all directions over the 
lip of the vase, made it look, as a young 
friend remarked, “ like a little fountain 
and the effect of the whole was so charm¬ 
ing, that every one who came into the 
room uttered an exclamation of surprise 
and pleasure. 
It stood by a north window, within a 
few feet of a coal stove ; and all the care 
it required was a quart of luke-warm 
water sprinkled over it every other day, 
and a newspaper pinned up against the 
window when the night happened to be 
very cold. 
And was its vocation over when the 
winter closed? By no means. Not 
wishing to expose my little table to the 
weather, I made a rustic stand of some 
gnarled grape-vines and rough elm 
branches, which I placed in the centre 
of my flower-beds. On this I set my 
wire-garnished pan, replacing some of 
the ferns and plants that had died by 
others from the woods and fields. At 
the foot of the stand I planted some 
Madeira Vines, Balloon Vines, and 
Morning Glories, which soon climbed 
up and coyly kissed and clasped hands 
with the Ivy, now luxuriating in a truly 
rich and rampant growth. The result 
was a perfect mass of greenery of grace¬ 
ful form, every day assuming a different 
aspect, or putting on some new attraction. 
In the simple means at my command, 
and the thousand lovely things that 
God has 
can find, 
but others equally charming, equally delightful, to a 
cultivated taste. I. M. 
so bountifully strewn around my feet, I 
not indeed the same forms of beauty, 
