ROCKERIES, FRAMES, AND WARDIAN СА5Е5 45 
the crown from the noonday sun. The best time for rockery 
construction and planting Ferns is in the early spring, after a long 
winter rest, and before the new fronds are actually rising ; at this 
period they will stand dividing and shifting almost with impunity, 
and with the minimum risk of damage to the growth of the coming 
season. The next best time is the autumn, just when growth has 
ceased. 
FRAME CULTURE.—We have seen some very charming collections 
of the smaller growing species in cold frames, the species being kept 
separate. In this case, in the area of the frame, the ordinary soil 
is excavated for a foot or eighteen inches, such soil being replaced 
with the compost already mentioned. If, however, the local soil 
be good garden material, a thorough digging and intermixture 
with leaf mould, or whichever material is lacking, will suffice. Into 
this the varieties are planted, sufficiently widely apart to permit 
them to assume full size, and with the needful watering or exposure 
to rain in wet spells, they will take care of themselves. The frame 
itself should have sliding or hinged lights, and be two feet or more 
high at back by six inches less in front, according to the species 
to be accommodated. The length may be anything, but the width 
should not be a hindrance to easy reach. It must be shaded from 
hot sun but not deprived of top light. Its slope should be north- 
ward or eastward. A thin scrim blind is advisable for use in case 
of need. The varieties of Polypodium vulgare, Blechnum spicant, 
and the smaller forms of the Hartstongue are peculiarly fitted for 
frames. Serviceable pockets, or rather troughs, for seedlings may 
be made along the sides of the frame by driving in a row of nails 
obliquely, at an angle of forty-five degrees, upon which may be rested 
the lower edges of the ridge slates used on roofs, which are several 
feet long by ях inches wide. Holes can easily be bored through these 
near the upper edge, and copper wire can be passed through and 
looped over another row of nails where necessary, suspending the 
slates at an angle of forty-five degrees, which thus form a con- 
tinuous trough. 
WARDIAN CASES.—The simple invention by Mr. Henry Ward 
in the first half of the last century, consisting of an approximately 
air-tight glass covering to a shallow box, capable of containing 
plants, turned out to be one of immense importance in connection 
with the transport of living plants from far distant parts of the 
world with safety, and it also permitted of the culture of delicate 
plants, demanding a constantly humid atmosphere in ordinary 
rooms, which previously had been an impossibility. The typical 
form of case is composed of a metal box about a yard long, half as 
wide, and about six inches deep, provided with a rectangular glass 
cover, with a semi-cylindrical top, with a narrow opening along the 



















