52. 7 



PREFACE. 



THERE are few if any departments of Nature-lore upon which 

 so many volumes have been published during fifty years as 

 have been produced dealing with our native Ferns some good, 

 some indifferent, others bad. Why, it may be asked, add 

 another to a sufficiently long list ? I have no particular defence 

 to offer, except to say that many readers of the " Wayside and 

 Woodland Series" demanded such a handy volume, and the 

 publishers regarded the demand as a reasonable one. No 

 doubt the publishers would also say there are points in the 

 production of this work that fully justify its appearance : such 

 as the handy pocket size, and the novel plan of giving not 

 only a drawing in colour of each species, but also a photo- 

 graphic representation of most of the plants growing amid 

 their natural surroundings. In a word, it is a book for the 

 Nature-lover, not the Nature-destroyer for whom most Fern- 

 books have been written hitherto. For that reason only the 

 facts of general distribution so far as the British Islands are 

 concerned are given. Such data are sufficient to enable the 

 intelligent Nature-lover to get on the track of the good things 

 he desires to see growing wild ; but the way is not made too 

 plain and easy for the exterminator, from whom the country 

 has suffered so grievously. 



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