PREFACE. 
IN recent years there has arisen a widespread interest 
in ferns from the popular point of view, creating a de- 
mand for more detailed information regarding their 
haunts and habits than is found in the text-boks de- 
voted to the subject. It is the aim of the present volume 
to supply this information; and in such a manner that 
while conforming strictly to scientific canons, it shall 
make the way as smooth as possible for the beginner 
whose desire is, first of all, to know the names of the 
ferns. 
Few families of plants are at once so generally 
admired and so little known. Many who have been 
attracted to their study by the grace and beauty of 
the individual species, have been prevented from con- 
tinuing it by the apparent difficulties in the way. Al- 
though we have long had manuals from which the names 
of the ferns might be learned, the characters upon which 
the identification of the species is based are so different 
from those employed in the better known flowering 
plants, and the descriptions are written in such brief and 
technical language, that they have served to discourage 
all save the most persevering of students. As a matter 
of fact, ferns are probably easier to identify than flower- 
ing plants when one knows how, and the knowing how 
may be acquired with less labour. 
After mastering the names of our ferns, the student 
who has desired to go deeper into the subject and learn 
something of their haunts, habits and folk-lore, has been 
