A history of British ferns, and allied plants / By Edward Newman.

  • Edward Newman
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of British ferns, and allied plants / By Edward Newman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and exactness, and would be better if double, and always one of them shut before the other is opened. Houses on a large scale can scarcely be made sufficiently air-tight to prevent the escape of aqueous exhalations: a leaden pipe, pierced with small holes, should therefore be carried round the building, at as great a height as may be found practicable, and this pipe connected with a reservoir, so that an artificial shower could be produced at pleasure ; if an increase of temperature were considered necessary, it might readily be attained by the introduction of hot- water pipes in the usual way. So great is the advantage of this plan, that the plants of tropical regions can now be cultivated in London with the most perfect success; and, what is of still greater impor- tance, may be conveyed, uninjured by extremes of heat and cold, and without any additional supply of moisture, from the most distant parts of the earth. Mr. Ward, and Messrs. Loddiges of Hackney, have, in their glass cases, transmitted our plants to the most distant countries, and have received the same cases in return filled with valuable exotics, many of which have never previously reached this country in a living state. But the most pleasing character of this mode of cultiva- tion is, that it can be adapted to any spot that fancy may select: plants in this way may be grown in a drawing- room, without ever making the least litter or apparent un- tidiness, and without the trouble attendant on watering. If the cases were opened annually it would be sufficiently often, and the decayed fronds, or a too luxuriant growth,
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