INTRODUCTION 3 



The literature of our native Ferns is very copious, but that of 

 the early days of their study either makes no reference to varieties 

 at all, or dismisses them as monstrosities, and consequently un- 

 worthy of serious attention. Moore's Nature-Printed Ferns 

 was, we believe, the first work to deal with them on appreciative 

 lines, both the folio and octavo editions containing a number of 

 splendid plates printed from actual impressions of the fronds them- 

 selves in soft metal. Mr. E. J. Lowe followed with New and 

 Rare Ferns, embracing a number of British varieties, and then, 

 in 1876, published two volumes, Our Native Ferns, illustrated 

 with a very large number of coloured plates and woodcuts depicting 

 and describing all the numerous varieties, of which at that date 

 he could obtain a record. Twenty years later he published an 

 invaluable little handbook, British Ferns, and Where Found 

 (Swan Sonnenschein & Co.), to which we have alluded above as 

 dealing with nearly 2000 forms, including those raised by selective 

 cultivation. In Britten's European Ferns, a few varieties are 

 mentioned and figured. Mr. P. Neill Fraser, of Edinburgh, issued 

 a list of varieties, and an interesting list of the Ferns of the Lake 

 District was compiled by Mr. J. M. Barnes, and subsequently ex- 

 tended in a second edition by Mr. G. Whitwell, of Kendal. In 

 1888 the writer published Choice British Ferns (Upcott Gill), now 

 out of print, describing and depicting a considerable number of 

 the best types, and in 1901 he, in conjunction with a committee 

 of the British Pteridological Society, brought the subject more up 

 to date by The Book of British Ferns (Newnes), which described 

 about 700 such. 



In the interim, however, there have been still further develop- 

 ments and " finds," and it is our object in this work to bring the 

 subject still more up to date, on more generous lines, and so far as is 

 possible within the limits permissible to make it a complete com- 

 pendium of existing records, a book of reference for culture, etc., 

 but rather for the practical amateur than for the scientific botanist, 

 though for the benefit of the latter we give footnote references to 

 some of the most important scientific literature concerned with 

 the discoveries which have resulted since scientific research has been 

 brought to bear upon the inner phenomena presented by abnormal 

 forms of Ferns. The generic and specific names given are also 

 those generally recognized by British Fern-growers, and we have 

 purposely steered clear of the terrible quagmire involved in the 

 infinite number of synonyms, or different names for the same thing, 

 resulting from varied and frequently mistaken views on the part 

 of those botanists who make classification and nomenclature 

 their study, many of whom, too, are constantly inventing new 

 names for old friends, and thus turning confusion into chaos. 

 The economical uses of our living native Ferns we have also ignored, 

 as of too little practical importance in these days ; but we should 



