INTRODUCTION. 



IT is hoped that the following pages will furnish our readers 

 with plain and distinct directions for the cultivation of that 

 most justly popular tribe of plants the Ferns. We have 

 attempted to give all the information which may be required 

 for their successful management, with notes upon all the 

 best Ferns which are easily attainable. The lists are not 

 complete ; for to have mentioned every species which is 

 now to be found in our British stoves and greenhouses would 

 have increased the book to too great a size. Besides, many 

 of them are represented in this country by only one or two 

 examples ; and to propagate these to a sufficient extent for 

 them to become popular plants will be a work of years. 

 Others have been omitted from the large genera, or their 

 names only given because it was thought that those enume- 

 rated would be found sufficient. We have used the names 

 by which the plants are most generally known, not bur- 

 dening our pages with, long lists of synonymes, which may 

 be obtained elsewhere ; but in case a plant is well known 

 by two names we have given them. To those who would 



