TO 
Slit WILLIAM JACKSON HOOKER, LL.D., F.IL, A. & L.S. 
&c. &c. &c. 
AND 
REGIUS PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW 
SIR , 
To you , who stand so far before all other Writers in a practical 
knowledge of British Botany, and ivho have made the Ferns so particularly the 
subject of your attention, I beg respectfully to dedicate this little Work. I am 
aivare that it is too small to be worthy of your attention; but I am anxious to 
take as early an opportunity as possible of offering my homage to those brilliant 
talents which have contributed so essentially to diffuse a love of Botany; that 
energy without which even talents are unavailing, and that urbanity of manners 
and liberality of feeling for which Botanists have always been celebrated. 
That you may long be spared the full enjoyment of all your mental and 
physical faculties, to cheer your Friends and to instruct the World, is the 
ardent wish of 
Sir, 
Your most obedient Servant, 
THE AUTHOR. 
