[T&ie 
PREFACE. 
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Considering the number of works upon Ferns already 
before the public, it may seem necessary to offer some 
apology for adding another; but this is a matter of 
seeming rather than of fact, for it is universally ac- 
knowledged that the demand creates the supply, and 
we therefore present our new c f Introduction ” with full 
confidence in the sympathy and welcome it will receive 
from the genial Fern-lovers, to please whom we have 
laboured diligently in its preparation. To assist their 
efforts in studying, collecting, and cultivating, we have 
searched extensively in public libraries and botanical 
periodicals, as well as among the hills and dales of our 
own and other countries, and in the ferneries of distin- 
guished cultivators ; and we have little doubt of their 
accepting our simple work in the same spirit in which 
we offer it to them. Their desire and ours is to under- 
