INTRODUCTION, 
9 
of Nature’s garments. Why cannot our writers 
give us word-painting in their description of plants, 
instead of using only the unpoetic language of 
science ? Why cannot more of the grace and beauty 
with which the Creator has endowed the natural 
world be reproduced in books ? 
Amongst the most graceful and beautiful of the 
many lovely forms of vegetable life are the ferns. 
Of plants they are the least prosaic. Representing 
the beauty of form as distinguished from the gor- 
geousness of colouring, they are endowed with a 
tender and romantic grace. To study them is one 
of the most popular of pursuits, to cultivate them 
has become a popular passion. But thousands more 
would be added to the great host of fern-lovers if 
fern-literature were not so difficult to understand, 
and so unattractive. 
The tourist makes a dive into a country lane. 
Charmed with the varied and glorious forms of 
fern-life which he meets, he resolves to study the 
objects which have had so pleasing a fascination 
for him. He obtains a fern-book; but after reading 
two or three pages he wearily throws it aside. 
