THE ILLUSTRATIONS. 
The Author desires to take the opportunity of making 
grateful acknowledgments for the assistance which he has 
received in the work of illustrating this volume. 
The illustration placed as frontispiece is frofti a very beau- 
tiful photograph of an amateur Fernery in Town, taken by 
kind permission of Mr. Giles Yarde, of I jamb’s Conduit Street. 
For the photograph the Author is indebted to the kind and 
courteous assistance, en amateur, of Mr. Robert B. Marston. 
The three full-page engravings on pages 31, 117, and 141, 
are from the very beautiful series of Devonshire views of 
Messrs. Francis Frith and Co. of Reigate, to whom the 
Author is indebted for the very courteous permission to use 
them for the purposes of this volume. 
Of the coloured illustrations the Author merely desires to 
say that they are printed from photographs of fronds collected 
and grouped by himself. It would have been opposed to the 
object of this work to illustrate it by mere drawings of Ferns 
— for the best drawing is frequently but a poor imitation of 
Nature. By bringing the marvellous and beautiful pro- 
cess of photography into requisition, it has been possible 
to copy the very lines of Nature herself. To Messrs. 
Emrik and Binger this process of Nature printing has been 
entrusted, and the Author gladly takes the opportunity of 
acknowledging the rare fidelity with which the work has been 
executed. 
