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When the first tiny issue of this magazine appeared we 

 had no idea that it was to herald a great movement in 

 the study of ferns. In those days the identification of 

 ferns was not the simple task it is at present. William- 

 son's " Ferns of Kentucky" (1878) was rare and hard 

 to get, Jones' "Ferns of the West" (1882) did not 

 apply to the region in which most of the study of ferns 

 was carried on and the cost of D. C. Eaton's " Ferns of 

 North America" (1879) placed it beyond the reach of 

 most students. Robinson's " Ferns in their Homes and 

 Ours" (1879) though a manual for the cultivator did 

 much to increase an interest in our favorites. It is true 

 that the first edition of Underwood's " Our Native 

 Ferns " appeared in 1880, but it was not until some time 

 after The Fern Bulletin began to be issued that the 

 popular handbooks, of which we now have so many, 

 began to appear. First of these was the modest little 

 volume of Raynal Dodge entitled " The Ferns and Fern 

 Allies of New England" (1896) then came Sadie F. 

 Price's " Fern Collector's Handbook" (1897) long since 

 out of print. The well-known " How to Know the 

 Ferns " by Mrs. Parsons appeared in 1899, the editor's 

 " Our Ferns in Their Haunts " appeared two years later, 

 and in the following year came his " Guide to the 

 Ferns." Then followed Water's "Ferns" (1903), East- 

 man's " New England Ferns and Their Common Allies " 



(1904) , Woolson's "Ferns, and How to Grow Them" 



(1905) , Clute's " Fern Allies of North America " (1905), 

 the latter the only popular work on this subject, and Miss 

 Slosson's "How Ferns Grow" (1906). Mention should 

 also be made of the fact that in 1900 appeared the sixth 

 and last edition of Underwood's " Our Native Ferns." 

 The student whose library is graced by a majority of 

 the above-mentioned books may try to imagine what it 

 meant to name the ferns without them. Those were the 

 days when to be an authority on ferns meant more than 

 it does at present, and beginners rejoiced when they 



