PREFACE. 



IN recent years there has arisen a widespread interest 

 in ferns from the popular point of view, creating a de- 

 mand for more detailed information regarding their 

 haunts and habits than is found in the text-books de- 

 voted to the subject. It is the aim of the present volume 

 to supply this information ; and in such a manner that 

 while conforming strictly to scientific canons, it shall 

 make the way as smooth as possible for the beginner 

 whose desire is, first of all, to know the names of the 

 ferns. 



Few families of plants are at once so generally 

 admired and so little known. Many who have been 

 attracted to their study by the grace and beauty of 

 the individual species, have been prevented from con- 

 tinuing it by the apparent difficulties in the way. Al- 

 though we have long had manuals from which the names 

 of the ferns might be learned, the characters upon which 

 the identification of the species is based are so different 

 from those employed in the better known flowering 

 plants, and the descriptions are written in such brief and 

 technical language, that they have served to discourage 

 all save the most persevering of students. As a matter 

 of fact, ferns are probably easier to identify than flower- 

 ing plants when one knows how, and the knowing how 

 may be acquired with less labour. 



After mastering the names of our ferns, the student 

 who has desired to go deeper into the subject and learn 

 something of their haunts, habits and folk-lore, has been 



