PREFACE. 
HAVING derived so much pleasure from the pursuit of 
Ferns and Mosses so much gratification while roaming 
amidst the homes and haunts of these beautiful objects I 
have been induced to contribute my experiences to the 
series of "Indispensable Handy Books." 
Not all the elegancies of Potichimanie, Diaphany, 
Knitting, Netting, and Crochet, ever offered so much to 
the light fingers of the fair sex as a few cases of Ferns; 
and no amateur gardener ever found a fairer field for his 
enterprise than a Fern-bank, or a collection of Ferns in 
pots. A few years since none but enthusiastic Botanists 
paid any attention to them, and fewer still had attempted 
their domestication for purposes of study and ornament. 
Now we find them in windows, in gardens,, and even in 
the dark front areas of town dwellings. 
