8 
THE FERN PARADISE. 
The book of Nature is indeed beautiful to those 
who can read it ; but those who cannot read it all 
can read a part of it. Some of its stories are full 
of sweet simplicity. Page after page can sometimes 
be turned, and the reader will encounter nothing 
to dismay him ; nothing even to puzzle him. But 
the simple study of Nature is too frequently made 
a hard task by those who profess to teach. Botany 
is one of the most beautiful of natural studies, 
because it tells us all about the glorious vegetation 
which springs up from the earth. 
Yet are there not thousands who do not under- 
stand botany ? To some the study is too difficult. 
Others can find no opportunities for pursuing it. 
But all would like to know something of the beau- 
tiful vegetable world ; something less — less formal, 
less difficult — than what is usually to be found in 
books, and something more than can be learned 
from the mute language — eloquent nevertheless in 
its muteness — of the plants themselves. Why is it 
that so few attempts are made to render popular 
the study of plants ? Our artists on paper and 
canvas attempt to reproduce the gorgeous colouring 
