PREFACE TO THE ILLUSTRATED (FOURTH) EDITION. 



' A Fern Paradise at Home ' and ' The Hygienic 

 Influence of Plants in Rooms' (with the excep- 

 tion of the Introduction to Part II.) have been 

 written for the present edition. Alterations so 

 extensive have necessarily required an increase 

 in the size of the volume and the re- setting of the 

 type throughout. 



But the especial feature of this new edition is 

 its illustrations. And here the Author has to 

 make acknowledgment to a host of kind friends 

 for the suggestion that the utility of his ' Plea ' 

 for Fern culture would be greatly enhanced and 

 strengthened by pictorial embellishment. 



An illustrated title-page appeared to the 

 Author to be indispensable to the present edi- 

 tion : and if the Reader will indulgently imagine 

 in looking upon this first and introductory page 

 that he is looking through an opening in a 

 ferny embankment at a perspective of clustering 

 Ferns in graceful association with shady rocks 

 and woodland knolls ; and if the Reader will, at 



