INTRODUCTION. 
IX 
tous bank, or a ledge of rocks, keeping the surface in a 
state of perpetual moisture, half a score others were sure 
to be growing : in the chasm at Ponterwyd I think I 
counted fourteen distinct kinds. 
Of every species I could obtain, not only the fronds but 
the roots were carefully conveyed home, and, assisted hy 
Withering and Smith, I set to work, expecting to name 
them without difficulty ; but how shall I express my as- 
tonishment, when, after a minute and really attentive inves- 
tigation, I could only be certain of two species — Pteris 
aquilina and Polypodium vulgare ! I soon afterwards 
availed myself of the assistance of my botanical friends, 
and obtained names for all my Ferns. Since then I have 
paid some attention to the specific characters, as laid down 
by our best authors, and I am inclined to doubt whether 
those most distinctive have been employed. It appears 
that the manner in which a frond is cut or divided, has 
hitherto constituted almost the sole ground of specific dis- 
tinction. Now, we find a great number of specimens in a 
state of semi-cultivation, i, e,, partaking more or less of the 
influence of the spade, or plough and harrow, and nourished 
by an almost infinite variety of soils and manures ; and 
we also find amongst such specimens as great a vaiiety of 
cutting, as we do in the colours of domesticated animals. 
I think no botanist, who allows his memory to turn to the 
varieties he has observed of Lastrcea midtiflora and Poly- 
stichum aculeatum, will for a moment deny this ; and yet 
what botanist has ever presumed to treat of the cutting of 
the frond in Ferns as of any other than the highest impor- 
