INTRODUCTORY. 



to supply the popular want for the refreshing 

 presence of trees, shrubs, plants and flowers. But 

 it is the exception to find gardens in the central 

 parts of large towns. Small open spaces or yards 

 may sometimes exist in lieu of gardens. But in 

 such spaces everything has, too frequently, a bleak 

 and arid aspect, except where 'boon Nature' has 

 thrown down a few blades of grass or some hardy 

 weed which can bravely live amidst uncongenial 

 surroundings ; or where, perhaps, the occupiers of 

 the houses which possess such dismal open spaces 

 may have introduced shrubs, plants, or flowers in 

 pots. In town suburbs gardens are more plentiful, 

 and flower gardening occasionally is practised 

 with great artistic effect. Even in town suburbs, 

 however, there is many a bleak, uncultivated 

 corner which might be subjected with advantage 

 to the enlivening influence of plants. 



But the Ferns why are not they brought into 

 more extended cultivation ? Not because there 

 is any disinclination to do so on the part of town 

 dwellers. On the contrary, are the numbers not 

 counted by hundreds of thousands of those who, 

 chained to business in the heart of the great 



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