Aura. 



be made a source of pleasure, amusement, and instruction. The 

 elegant shape of their graceftd fronds renders them useful and 

 oeautiful objects for penoU and water-colour drawings, tor 

 photographic pictures, and for the adornment of tables, vases, 

 flower-stands, and other pieces of ornamental fomiture with 

 leather-work in imitation of carved oak. The fronds may also 

 be pressed and dried, and then fastened to sheets of cartridge 

 paper bound together to form a Fern Album. Some sheets of 

 stout blotting-paper and pasteboard, two or three flat boards, 

 and a heavy weight or two, will furnish all that is necessary 

 to constitute the press, in which the fronds should remain for 

 two or three weeks at least. When dry, they should be 

 fastened to the pages with little strips of paper gummed trans- 

 versely across the stems, and the order, botanical name, English 

 name, and the spot and date, when and where it was gathered, 

 should be carefhlly registered in any convenient corner in this 



Obder 

 Box. Naue 

 Cou. NAido 

 Where Oatbibbd 

 Date . 



Otvmndacea. 

 Ogmunda BegalU. 

 Royal Fern. 

 KUlarney, Ireland. 

 August 29th, 1862. 



How many memories of the ranished past would such a 

 collection serve to conjure up ! What pleasant walks and 

 happy hours spent with loved and valued friends would it 

 recall to our remembrance ! And if those memories should be 

 tinged with a sweet sadness, when through their magic power 

 the eye can almost see some once familiar scene that we may 

 never again re-visit, and the ear almost hear the welcome 

 accents of some well-known voice whose tones are hushed for 

 ever, they would be none the less pleasant; but the book, 

 that had spoken to the heart of things that were, would 

 become a " Home Pet " that we should prize more highly, and 

 treasure more closely, after each communion with the withered 

 fronds that lie between its pages. 



