CHAPTER V. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
We have seen that Ferns are distributed all over the surface 
of the world, both on continents and islands, with the ex- 
ception of the sterile parts of the polar regions. To give, 
therefore, in detail a mere list of the numberless localities 
in which they are to be found would necessitate the space 
which a library of volumes alone could afford ; and such a 
list could never be complete, because the limits of the Fern 
world are continually being extended under the operation of 
the almost infinite power of reproduction possessed by those 
beautiful plants. Wherever the conditions of existence con- 
tinue to be favourable, Fern life is maintained ; and whenever 
such conditions are created in localities where they did not 
previously exist, there, in course of time, — the interval de- 
pending on the proximity of ferny growths, — forms of Fern 
life will appear. Hence no mere dry and detailed list of 
the habitats of Ferns throughout the world would possess 
much permanent utility ; and such a list, if full and com- 
plete, would, as we have said, vastly exceed the limits 
of the present volume. When we come to deal with the 
Ferns of the British Isles, we shall anticipate the especial 
interest which English readers feel in this particular subject 
by including in our chapters, under the heading of each 
native species, the counties or districts in which it has been 
found ; and to make this list in years to come, and in future 
editions of this work, as perfect and complete as it is pos- 
