PREFACE. 
If the welcome accorded to ‘ The Fern Paradise ’ by more 
than a hundred kind Keviewers, and the manner in which 
that modest ‘ Plea for the Culture of Ferns ’ has been 
received by the Fern-loving public, may be taken as any 
indication that the subject of the volume is a thoroughly 
popular one, and one which interests a very wide circle of 
readers, the Author has abundant encouragement to continue 
and expand his endeavours yet further to popularize the 
study of a class of plants which are unquestionably — if 
delicacy of form, and depth and richness of colouring are to 
count for anything— the most graceful and beautiful 
amongst the many and varied forms of life in the vegetable 
world. 
The object of the present volume is twofold. It seeks to 
inculcate a love for the study of Nature, and to do this by 
making the reader better acquainted with that world of 
beauty — the world of Ferns. If any of those who may 
peruse these pages should be led beyond the pursuit which 
they recommend ; if they should be led up from the shadowy 
world of ‘ cool grot and mossy cell ’ to that upper world 
which Nature’s God has clothed with the bright forms and 
many-hued blossoms of sun-loving plants, then indeed will 
the Author’s work be crowned with a success which he 
covets. He at least is content in this present volume to lead 
those who will follow him into the world of Ferns ; for he 
ventures to think that, in the whole round of botany, there 
is no other branch of the subject the study of which is at 
