THE FERN PARADISE. 



for Mm. He obtains a Fern-book ; but after 

 reading two or three pages he wearily throws it 

 aside. Should it chance to contain coloured en- 

 gravings of his favourites, he may linger for a few 

 moments over it ; but when he has once scanned 

 the artist's efforts, he has seen all that he desires 

 to see. 



It is the old story. The language of science, as 

 generally rendered by our scientific writers, is a 

 language for the few, and science will never be 



o o 



popular until it is popularly taught. ' The lan- 

 guage of flowers ' has been taught ; cannot an 

 attempt be made to teach the language of Ferns ? 



These beautiful plants seem to be especially 

 designed for universal cultivation, for even the 

 tiniest of the species in each of the numerous 

 wonderful and exquisitely formed seed-cases con- 

 cealed at the back of its fronds bears countless 

 myriads of seeds. The common kinds of Ferns- 

 common only in the sense of being plentiful are 

 to be found almost everywhere ; but the home of 

 our native Ferns is Devonshire ' the Garden of 

 England.' 



Amidst all our English counties, Devonshire 



66 



