The ferns of Great Britain and their allies, the club-mosses, pepperworts, and horsetails / by Anne Pratt ; published under the direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education, appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
- Anne Pratt
- Date:
- [1871]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The ferns of Great Britain and their allies, the club-mosses, pepperworts, and horsetails / by Anne Pratt ; published under the direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education, appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![as an ornamental plant; though in the glass cases it is now often to be seen, producing larger fronds than in its native locality, and by its green beauty delighting the eye of the dweller in the smoky town, or cheering the heart saddened by long sickness and absence from the scenes of Nature. In Mr. Ward’s interesting work on the growth of plants in closed cases—a little book honourable alike to the thoughtful intellect and kind heart of its writer—this gentleman says, that when making the experiments which led to his j)lan of ghiss cases, he was induced to commence Avith this, the most lovely of our cellular ])lants, in consequence of its being the most intractable under ordinary culture; of its being in fact, as he says, the “opprobrium hortulanoruin.” “ Loddiges,” says Mr. Ward, “ who had it repeatedly, never could keep it alive; and Baron Fisclier, the super- intendent of the botanic establishment of the Emperor of Russia, when he saw the plant groAving in one of my cases, took off his hat, made a low boAv to it, and said, ‘ You have been my master all the days of my life ! ’ ” On some rock-Avork in Mr. Ward’s fern-hoti.se, this jdant produced fronds fifteen inches in height, by seven or eight in breadth, one-fourth larger than uncultivated specimens, either from Killarney or elscAvlierc. The small portion of Trichomtines represented in the plate is part of a very interesting specimen given to Mr. Dickes by Mr. N. B. Ward. The latter gentleman, in a letter to the Author, says of it, “ Some years since, Avhen I had the pleasure of visiting Killarney Avith Dr. Harvey, avc determined to find out, if possible, another locality for Trichomanes radicam; and to this end directed](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28122306_0245.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
