New Zealand Ferns 
15 
tions have been taken from green specimens, there has 
been none of that distortion which sometimes occurs in 
specimens that have been dried — see the illustration of 
Loxsoma in the ‘.‘Synopsis Filicum.” The photographs 
in this work are all of New Zealand species, no pains 
having been spared to obtain typical specimens. The 
student, with a little application, should be able to 
recognise all the herbaceous ferns. The tree-ferns 
differ so much in size and general appearance that 
the written description should be sufficient guide. 
This has no pretension to being a scientific work. The 
language is what I hope the average reader will under- 
stand. I have been tempted to use the botanical term 
“sori" when alluding to the fructification of the ferns, 
but, in a popular work, the arguments in favour of the 
older word “seeds” seem to me to be unanswerable. As 
defined in modern popular dictionaries it is exactly ap- 
plicable — “That part of a plant which contains the rudi- 
ment or embryo of the future plant.” Nine hundred and 
ninety-nine people out of a thousand do not know the 
meaning of “sori” — the botanist possibly being the soli- 
tary exception — but they understand what is meant by 
“seeds.” This is a popular work, written for the nine 
hundred and ninety-nine majority. To cpiote J. FI. 
Fabre in his “Life of a Grasshopper,” page 69, “Con- 
vinced as I am that barbarous terms are only a cumber- 
some impediment to science.” 
I have striven after accuracy, and have always tried 
to verify my facts; if mistakes have crept in, I can only 
crave forbearance. With the exception of the scientific 
names which are absolutely necessary, both for the sake 
of accuracy and because most of our ferns have no other 
• — they are no more uncouth than those of many garden 
flowers — I have purposely avoided botanical scientific 
terms. This book is not a primer. I claim no special 
knowledge of the subject, only an intense love for the 
beautiful plants and a desire to encourage others in their 
study. 
