THE AUTHOR TO THE READER. 
xiii 
unless he can do so he is conscious that he can 
have no claim, as he has already said, upon the 
readers indulgence. 
In conclusion, the author would express the 
earnest hope that his little volume may be the 
humble means of increasing the popular taste for 
the varied and exquisite forms of fern life : a taste 
which is certain to have a softening and elevating 
influence on the popular mind. May these grace- 
ful and feathery forms crowd in vast numbers into 
our dwelling houses, our gardens, and our places of 
business, shedding their soft charms within the 
rude rough sphere of this hurrying, pushing, hard, 
and too practical modern life of ours. And if this 
little volume may be the means of shedding even 
the smallest additional ray of happiness on the 
path of those who may read it, the knowledge of 
such a result will be to the author the source of 
the most sincere and heartfelt satisfaction. 
Brunswick Lodge, 
South Hackney, 
March , 1875. 
