IMPROVEMENT IN THE ARRANGEMENT OF FERNS. ' 359 



Tbougla entirely without flowers, the gracefulness of their varied 

 forms, their feathered clumps of fronds, the curved growth of their 

 young leaves, and the rich verdure often displayed by their mature 

 foliage, early interest us all ; and if they have become a peculiarly 

 favorite and fashionable subject of culture for the glass-ease in the 

 drawiug-roora and for the hot-house, green-house and rock-work, this is 

 no more than a homage naturally paid to eminent beauty, elegance and 

 singularity, in a kingdom of nature which abounds in whatever can 

 charm the senses or gratify curiosity. 



We must by no means be content to take our ideas of ferns from the 

 few species, beautiful and attractive as they are, which offer themselves 

 to our notice in a climate which is far from being favorable to their 

 growth. Of thousands that are known, whilst a few small tropical islands 

 may yield several hundred in each, the whole of this great Northern 

 continent has only about seventy proper ferns; and fine as some of 

 ours are, they fail to give us any assistance in forming a conception of 

 the sometimes majestic, sometimes airy beauty of the tree ferns, the 

 peculiar gracefulness of the climbing ferns, and the exquisite delicacy 

 of the maidenhairs and the filmy ferns. There is something so specially 

 characteristic in this race of plants, that with all their varieties of form 

 and habit of growth, they have been uniformly recognised as a natural 

 assemblage ; and it seems an easy task, even for the least experienced, 

 to'disfcinguish a fern even from those plants which most nearly resemble 

 it ; but strikingly as this is the case, the task of reducing the numerous 

 species to genera, tribes and orders, has always been found a difficult 

 one, and is far from being yet satisfactorily accomplished. Upon the 

 genera I shall on this occasion offer no remarks, beyond a review of the 

 principles upon which they ought to be founded ; but in respect to the 

 higher groups, as to their order, mutual relations, proper limits, and 

 the most correct and convenient mode of naming them, I propose laying 

 before you the conclusions at which I have arrived, as the result of 

 careful and long continued study, not without the hope of contributing 

 something to the advancement of a favorite section of botanical science, 

 though chiefly by putting into a better and more useful form the labours 

 of others in the same field. 



It was "early believed that the dust-like substance, as it appeared to 

 the unassisted eye, observed scattered or in masses, on the under surface 

 of the leaves, or, as they are technically called, fronds of ferns, was of 

 the nature of seed; but how it was produced, or how the germs were 



