PREFACE. 



Tear by year a larger number of persons are becoming 

 interested in Eerns, and ambitious of cultivating them 

 in their dwellings. This commendable taste, and laud- 

 able ambition, it is the aim of the present Eern Book " 

 to foster. 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 sensa- 

 tional or new, unless it be an increased eiTort to be plaia 

 and popular, so that persons who know nothing of the 

 science of Botany or its technicalities, may learn some- 

 thing about Eerns. Whilst all the British species are 

 described and figured, and hints given for their cultiva- 

 tion, a number of hardy foreign species are also intro- 

 duced at the close, with such observations as were 

 required to render such a list acceptable to the amateur 

 cultivator of Eerns. It is hoped that in all things the 

 humblest artizan who desires to grow a Eern on his 

 window-sill, or the more favoured possessor of a Wardian 

 case in his drawing-room, will find the present what it 

 professes to be, "A Eeen Book eor Evehybodt." 



