INTRODUCTOIiY. xi 
less ramifications — this Fern is so difficult to 
transplant, that I have never yet seen it in culti- 
vation : and, therefore, it alone will find no pro- 
minent place in these pages, which treat of the 
Hardy Ferns I have collected and cultivated. 
I should recommend all who wish not only to 
collect Ferns, but also to study their nature, to pro- 
vide themselves with a ^' Codrington Lens ; " it is a 
magnifying glass of great power and small com- 
pass, suitable for the dissecting of the minute 
spore cases which line the back of the fronds of 
the Ferns, and by which the learner is able to 
classify the various plants he may meet with. 
The price of a "Codrington Lens" is about 
sixteen shillings, but I must own that I made 
a very large collection of Ferns, and learned their 
habits of life, their names, and classification 
without the help of any glass at all. I did it 
by a very simple process, recommended to me by 
the late Mr. Bree, whose researches in the world 
