^■1U PKEFACE. 



beautiful to look into, but tliey arc intellectual ornaments. 

 Of late years the drawing-room amusements, consequent upon 

 discovery, have taken a higher tone. Hundreds of miles away 

 from the ocean we can exhibit the various species of sea 

 anemone, crabs, star-fish, and other denizens of the salt water. 

 Thousands of miles away from the native rocks and woods of 

 New Zealand, or of the East and West Indies, as instances, 

 we can grow the Ilymenophyllums and Tricliomanes. As 

 advancement takes place in science, we feel an advantage in 

 bringing its interesting features as much as possible before our 

 eyes: it is thus that Ferns have become so deservedly popular. 

 Many varieties of exceeding beauty have been added to the 

 Ferns of the British Isles, but their number is so great that 

 it would have swollen the "New and Rare Ferns" beyond 

 the ordinary limits of such a work to have described them 

 all; they have, therefore, been reserved for the pages of "Our 

 Native Ferns." 



The object had in view in venturing to publish the "British 

 and Exotic Ferns," was to give a pictorial illustration of each 

 species that was to be found in our gardens and in our hot- 

 houses, so that the cultivator might ascertain without much 

 trouble to himself, whether the name he used was right or 

 wrong. In order to render this task both easy and useful, 

 the index of reference of synonymes has been made as full as 

 possible, the eight volumes and the addenda containing five 

 thousand six hundred and sixty-eight references. The work 

 has been both difficult and tedious, and whatever imperfections 

 may have crept into its pages, still the author has had the 

 satisfaction of finding it has done some good, inasmuch as the 

 plants in our private gardens are now more correctly named 

 than was the case before there were coloured plates within the 

 reach of gardeners to which to refer them. 



Obsertatory, Beeston, May %1th., 1862. 



