THE AUTHOR TO THE READER. xi 



wearily pining for the country, or something which 

 will remind them of it. The lives of such are 

 chiefly passed in two spheres the sphere of work 

 and the sphere of home. They live in one place, 

 and they work whether as employers or employed 

 in another, or it may be in others. 



It is probably because they have not given a 

 thought to the beautiful ferns that it has not 

 occurred to them how much more pleasant would 

 be the associations of their dwellings and their 

 places of business, were they to fill up every vacant 

 and available corner with these graceful and ele- 

 gant plants. Sometimes it is perhaps because the 

 idea of having flowers in sunless corners would be 

 impracticable that the idea of having any substi- 

 tutes for flowers is abandoned. But, as it has been 

 urged elsewhere " ferns will grow where flowering 

 plants would perish." 



Will it not be admitted then that a vast fund of 

 pleasure is here opened up, pleasure which is 

 within the reach of all? When it is remembered 

 how much in this life happiness and misery, com- 

 fort and discomfort, depend upon ourselves and 



