If you make a Ward case in the spring, your ferns will grow
beautifully in it all summer; and in the autumn, though they stop
growing, and cease to throw out leaves, yet the old leaves will remain
fresh and green till the time for starting the new ones in the spring.
But, supposing you wish to start your case in the fall, out of such
things as you can find in the forest; by searching carefully the rocks
and clefts and recesses of the forest, you can find a quantity of
beautiful ferns whose leaves the frost has not yet assailed. Gather
them carefully, remembering that the time of the plant's sleep has
come, and that you must make the most of the leaves it now has, as you
will not have a leaf more from it till its waking-up time in February
or March. But we have succeeded, and you will succeed, in making a
very charming and picturesque collection. You can make in your Ward
case lovely little grottoes with any bits of shells, and minerals, and
rocks you may have; you can lay down, here and there, fragments of
broken looking-glass for the floor of your grottoes, and the effect
of them will be magical. A square of looking-glass introduced into the
back side of your case will produce charming effects.
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