2 
CHOICE BRITISH FERNS. 
of the Queen of Flowers ? Yet this is precisely what has been 
done in the case of our lovely Ferns; and hence our wonder 
must logically be transferred from the ignorance of the public 
to that of its self-elected teachers. 
Some thirty or so years ago, the many varieties then existing 
had a full share of popular interest, and became indeed the 
“ rage,” any new form, no matter whether really beautiful or 
simply odd, and possibly ugly, finding an eager welcome at 
the hands of numerous collectors. The inevitable result of 
indiscriminate collection in an ever-widening field was a surfeit, 
and a reaction in the shape of such neglect that at the present 
moment very few indeed, even among horticulturists, have 
the slightest idea of the many forms of delicate beauty 
which have been maintained and increased by the handful of 
specialists in whom the taste has suiwived. These, here and 
there about the country, have cherished all the best varieties 
known at the period indicated, and, by persistent search and 
selective propagation, added innumerable forms thereto, many 
of which infinitely transcend any hitherto described or figured. 
Moore’s “Nature-printed Ferns” and Lowe’s “Our Native 
Ferns ” are the only works which give an adequate idea of 
the wonderful range of form which Dame Nature has con- 
trived to produce from the few simple normal types of Ferns 
indigenous to Britain. Since their publication, however, as 
we have said, many forms, on an ever-increasing scale of 
beauty, have been either found wild or raised ; and it is the 
object of this work to bring the record of these as far as 
practicable up to date. 
As the popular taste is largely created by those who cater 
for it, the proper display of a good thing being generally the 
needful preliminary to the demand for it, to nurserymen 
generally must be imputed much of the blame attached to 
the neglect of these beautiful plants, well-grown specimens 
of which are very rarely displayed for sale, though exotic 
Ferns, with far less pretensions to beauty, are grown with 
the utmost care, and shown by the thousand. An idea, indeed, 
seems to have arisen that British Ferns are “ common,” and only 
fit for stopgaps in out-of-the-way corners where nothing else 
