AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



' HE peculiarities of the process by which the Illustrations to the Ferns of Ore.il Britain 

 and Miami have been produced, being adverted to in another page, it is unnecessary 

 here to allude to them, further than to point out the fidelity with which the outline 

 of the specimens is reproduced ; and also how admirably the peculiarities or the 

 vascular structure— which is of real importance in tho classification of this family 

 —are represented by Nature-printing. The process itself has lwen described by 

 Mr. Henry Bradbury in a lecture delivered before the Royal Institution. 



There is, however, ono feature of the accompanying text, on which some explanation may bo 

 desirable, in order that its object ami intention may not be misapprehended. It has been attempted to 

 record, and to give some account of the multitudinous variations of the comparatively few species of 

 Ferns inhabiting these islands, which, oven in so limited a geographical area as that of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, have- been met with by diligent explorers within tbe very fow years which have elapsed 

 since the love of Ferns has become so widely diffused as it now is. It will bo apparent, from the 

 subordinate position assigned to them, that no botanical importance is claimed for most of the forms 

 thus enumerated ; but the object of recording them has been two-fold. 



In the lirst place they have been specially noticed for the purpose of affording nid to those Fern- 

 admirers, including not a few of tho gentlor sex and of high estate, who derive such agreeable recreation 

 as that afforded by Natural History studies, in seeking and finding, in collecting, and in cultivating, 

 tho species of Fcras, prolific of varied forms, and which for the most part have to he sought amidst 

 enchanting rural scenery, where both mind and body derive benefit from the pursuit Such 

 students of Nature have a right to whatever assistance they may draw from records like the present ; 

 and it is for their special behoof that the varieties wo have had occasion to notice novo been mentioned 

 under distinctive names. 



We believe, however, that the long series of variations enumerated, have a botanical significance ; 

 and it is this, in the second place, which has led us to notice them with some particularity. They arc 

 not indeed, in many instances, objects which the general botanist can attempt to keep separate under 

 distinct names oven as varieties; those only which are most prominently placed having this importance 

 claimed for them. But they are undoubtedly links in the chain of evidence which may direct him to the 

 conclusion that species have a wider range of form, even within narrow geographical limits, than many 

 botanists are willing to admit. They may also teach him that the variations of different plants of 

 admitted specific rank, often serve to connect the individuals into a series so extended, that species 

 themselves thus become things of doubtful import ">»1 of uncertain limit. This lesson, again surely 

 leads to the conclusion that species are mere groups of individuals associated by the Naturalist for his 

 own convenience and that of others, just as genera are groii]>s of the so-called species collected together 

 with the same end in view. The fact that such closely allied scries of forms which would ordinarily 

 bo referrible to several species admitted to bo distinct l»»t which for this very reason cannot bo 

 absolutely defined, and the total failure of all attempts to explain practically what a species is, point 

 forcibly, if not irresistibly, to the conclusion that Nature acknowledges only individuals, and that 

 a species is a thing of man's contrivance, and hence hns only an artificial value. 



Apart from this consideration, another obtrudes itself. Admitting the existence of species, whether 





