X INTRODUCTORY. 
practical experience as a successful cultivator of 
Ferns for the last ten years. 
I have used throughout the book the most 
popular botanical name for each of the Ferns, 
remembering how the variety of names used by 
authors puzzled me in the early days when I first 
began to make the acquaintance of my favourites. 
One hot summer's day stands out in my memory, 
clear and defined. I was in a hill country — and 
I saw written, for the first time, in a book, as one 
of the Ferns of the locality, the Pteris Aquilina, 
How I hunted up and down the steep mountain- 
side for some strange-looking Fern ! till meeting 
some friends, I asked, ''Do you know the Pteris 
Aquilina?" ''Yes," said they, laughing, "and 
so do you ! " and they pointed to the Bracken, or 
common Brakes, which grows in the greatest 
profusion nearly everywhere, and yet from the 
creeping nature of its roots— hiding themselves 
far down in the soil, and spreading out in number- 
