L'ENVOL 



" I ^HE author cannot take leave of his readers 

 without expressing the earnest hope that 

 some pleasure and some profit may have been 

 derived by those who have closely followed him 

 through his " Fern Paradise." To him, at least, 

 the work of writing these pages has been truly 

 a labour of love : for it has called up vividly 

 before his mind's eye delightful scenes which he 

 has with, he fears, but imperfect success attempted 

 to describe. But had not the task been light and 

 pleasant in itself, it would have been lightened 

 and rendered enjoyable by a consciousness of 

 the great importance of the object for which it 

 was undertaken. 



For surely to aim at giving pleasure to others 

 is an object of the highest importance ; and 

 there can be no purer enjoyment than that 



