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all happily past, and there is nothing more to be done save to have them ready to our hand 
in some easily accessible place? Most people will prefer to keep the specimens in a cabinet 
which may form no unattractive object in a room ; and for this purpose nothing more suitable 
can be suggested than the kind in use in the Botanical Department of the British Museum 
of which a figure is subjoined. Each shelf in these cabinets is a separate drawer, which, 
with its contents, can be taken out and replaced at will. If it is only intended to represent 
our British or European ferns, one such cabinet will be more than sufficient to contain all the 
specimens necessary. A half-cube, indeed, would suffice for the ordinary requirements of 
such a collection. Mahogany is a suitable and handsome material for the cabinets, but of 
course deal is much more economical. It is of this latter wood that the cabinets used in the 
Kew Herbarium are made ; in these the height is proportionately greater, and the shelves are 
not movable. 
Such are the principal points to be attended to in connection with the formation of the 
most satisfactory of all Herbaria — a collection of dried ferns. 
THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EUROPEAN FERNS. 
The literature especially devoted to ferns is both varied and extensive. The popularity of 
the tiibe has caused a demand for plainly-written handbooks upon the subject, and it must 
be admitted that the supply has proved at least adequate to this demand. It would appear 
that it is almost exclusively in England, or, at any rate, among English-speaking races, that 
fei ns have attracted popular attention, and that the cultivation of the hardy species more especially 
has become a “ hobby at least, so we should judge from the number of books treating of 
Biitish ferns exclusively. No parallel to this is found in either France or Germany, or in 
any Continental country ; indeed, so far as our knowledge of fern literature goes, such works are 
conspicuous by their absence. It would seem, however, that in the United States ferns are 
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