THE BOOK OF BRITISH FERNS. 
SELECTIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS. 
I T is really astonishing how few people even amongst plant 
lovers are aware that in our British Ferns and their 
varieties we have something absolutely unique in the 
world and unparalleled anywhere outside our little group 
of islands, despite the fact that elsewhere in many places 
Ferns are far more abundant and species far and away more 
numerous. No collection can be made of any other class of 
plants without some aid from outside ; either the plants them- 
selves are originally exotic or the varieties are due to culture 
abroad as well as here, but with our British Ferns not only 
have we many hundreds of lovely and diverse forms, every 
one of which is of home origin, either as a wild find or derived 
therefrom in this country, but in no other part of the world has 
a tithe of such diversity been found to exist, even in those places 
which are infinitely better endowed with raw material than we 
are. Whether this singular fact is due to a greater capacity 
for sporting in our native species, owing to climatic or other 
conditions, or whether it is due to the fact that here alone 
we have had a persistent coterie of Fern hunters engaged for 
half a century in this peculiar cult, we cannot with certainty 
say. but, from some little experience abroad, we incline to 
the latter belief. Anyway, the facts remain that we have such 
a wealth of beautiful native Ferns at our disposal, and that, 
on the principle perhaps that a prophet has no honour in his 
own country, we practically ignore the gift it constitutes at the 
hand of beneficent Nature. The most peculiar feature perhaps 
is that a love for Ferns is so general that thousands upon 
thousands of gardens display these self-same species in their 
shady corners, but almost invariably in their common forms, 
while the far more beautiful varieties are, as we have said, 
ignored. In cool or cold conservatories we also find specimens 
to which the same remark applies, yet we venture to think 
that a glance at our picture, page 19, which represents by the 
unflattering aid of photography a conservatory devoted entirely 
