6i6 [Proc. B.N.F.C. 



A well-stocked fernery, and Moore's hand-book of ferns, will 

 teach a beginner in a few lessons, more than a month's study 

 of all the learned books on ferns published. The biography of 

 a good man is a pleasant thing to read, but to see that man 

 face to face, and to know him personally is far better. 



After this acquaintance by sight, the study of little peculiari- 

 ties, aided by magnifying glasses and by the experience of 

 others, is made doubly interesting. 



About 20 years ago Mr. R. Lloyd Praeger took up the study 

 of ferns, and was with me on many excursions when good finds 

 were made ; he became a successful hunter and made a good 

 collection, the best of which he has now in Dublin. 



For many years business took me constantly travelling over 

 the North of Ireland, and, with my love of ferns, I availed 

 myself of opportunities to visit glens and mountains, and walk- 

 ing between one railway station and another along old roads 

 rich in ferns. I made a rule always to have the proper tools 

 with me — a steel pick, a fern trowel, cord, and a good canvas 

 bag. If unprepared and a find is made, if not then secured 

 the chances are that it never will be again. 



Mr. Druery says : — " It is astonishing how few people, even 

 among plant lovers, are aware that in our British ferns and 

 their varieties, we have something absolutely unique in the 

 world, and unparalleled anywhere outside our little group of 

 islands, despite the fact that elsewhere in many places ferns are 

 far more abundant, and species far more numerous." 



" No collection can be made of any other class of plants, 

 without some aid from outside ; either the plants themselves 

 are originally exotic, or the varieties are due to culture abroad 

 as well as here." 



" But with our British ferns not only have we many hundreds 

 of lovely and diverse forms, every one of which is of home 

 origin, either as a wild find or derived therefrom in this country 

 but in no ether part of the world has a tithe of such diversity 

 been found to exist, even in those places which are infinitely 

 better endowed with raw material than we are," 



