FERNS. 519 


nature, provided with a singularly contrived apparatus, 
_ which but faintly and obscurely foreshadows the floral or- 
gans of other plants. 
It were to be supposed that these plants, so common and 
widely distributed, would be known to everybody, growing 
as they do out of the crevices of rocks, springing up in 
the uncultivated fields, forming immense beds of growing 
and picturesque vegetation in the pastures, hiding the ground 
in the swamps, delighting the eye by their tender beauty in 
early spring, sprouting out in little graceful tufts from the 
stone walls, nodding and beckoning to their shadows as they 
are reflected in the water of the shady and cool well, or dip- 
ping into the pool or brook, but I have met with those who 
did not know what a fern was, even under its most familiar 
aspect. For such involuntary or willing ignoramuses, as well 
as for those who do know something and would know more 
of the ferns, the little work by Mr. Cooke, is specially and 
carefully prepared, and is what it purports, a “Fern Book 
for Everybody ;” and well were it if everybody would learn 
from its humble and unpretentious pages what they can 
_ teach: something and enough at least to find the ferns are 
worth knowing. “It only professes to be a plain and easy 
guide to the study or cultivation of plants well known, and 
often described before, hence it contains nothing sensational 
or new, unless it be an increased effort to be plain and popu- 
_ œm so that persons who know nothing of the science of 
botany, or its technicalities, may learn something about 
Whilst all the British species are described and 











~ er considered in the succeeding remarks of the pres- 
tice. 

