PREFACE. XV 
with January, 1848, commenced the ‘ Zoologist,’ of which the 
founder lived to conduct an uninterrupted series of thirty-three 
annual yolumes,—a circumstance probably without parallel in the 
history of journalism throughout the world. He would often look 
at the row of red volumes on his bookshelves with a quiet pleasure, 
not unmixed with a certain pride. The following extract from the 
Preface to the first volume gives, in his own words, an idea of 
the character and scope of the journal:—‘ The attempt to 
combine scientific truths with readable English has been 
considered by my friends as one of surpassing rashness; and 
many have been the kind and pressing solicitations I have 
received to desist from a labour so hopeless; many the suppli- 
cations to introduce a few Latin descriptions, just to give the 
work a scientific character. In reply to my friends, I would beg 
to instance White’s ‘Selborne.’ That most delightful of histories 
is written in pure, plain, intelligible English, and has found 
ample favour in the eyes of the public. White is now no more ; 
but his mantle has fallen upon others: a multitude of observers 
have arisen in the same field, and, what is more to my purpose, 
have become contributors to the pages of the ‘ Zoologist.’ 
Nature herself is exhaustless; our field of observation is wider, 
a thousand-fold, than White ever enjoyed; our capacity for 
observation is certainly not less. These are the grounds I have 
for hoping that the ‘ Zoologist’ will succeed.’”’ The practice of 
writing Natural History in simple English, thus rendering it 
interesting even to those not deeply versed in Science, was one 
on which Mr. Newman strongly insisted. In the lists of con- 
tributors to the pages of the ‘ Zoologist’ appear the names of 
almost every British naturalist of note. 
In 1844 the second edition of the ‘Ferns’ made its appear- 
ance, the first having gone rapidly out of print. In the second 
edition the work had increased from 104 to 424 pages. The 
Equisetacee and Lycopodiacee were added, as was also such a 
mass of additional information that the work was almost 
rewritten, and hardly to be called a second edition, deserving 
_to rank as a new book. From this time—with the exception of 
the collected ‘ Letters of Rusticus’ (1849)—until the publication 
of a third edition of the ‘Ferns,’ in 1854, he brought out no 
new book, his time and thought being sufficiently occupied with 
