INTRODUCTORY. 



already overtasks the failing energy, there will 

 be but little capacity for sentiment, fsw thoughts 

 to bestow upon Ferns or flowers.' ' Still, 5 he 

 grants, ' more might be done, and as there has 

 been a great advance in window-gardening 

 amongst the working classes, mainly through the 

 stimulus of competition, and by the annual gifts 

 of flowers from the royal parks and gardens, 

 Fern-culture might, in like manner and with 

 greater ease, be developed.' This is, in substance, 

 granting all that the Author contends for. The 

 saying that when, for instance, ' Poverty comes 

 in at the door Love flies out at the window,' is, no 

 doubt, often exemplified in actual life. And, in 

 the same way, ' the struggle for daily bread ' 

 must in a degree at least reduce the capacity 

 for indulging sentiment of any kind, including so 

 much of sentiment as would be involved in the 

 loving study and cultivation of Ferns. But there 

 are probably few amongst the poor whose lives, 

 though deeply affected by the ' chill penury ' 

 which freezes ' the genial current of the soul,' 

 are utterly unrelieved by one small gleam of 

 sunshine ! And surely the poor man who has a 



