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PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
As the publishers’ store is exhausted, a new edition of the 
‘‘Ferns of the Axe” now appears. In which is not only 
one more species inserted, but a large number of varieties 
not mentioned before, of which there are eleven never 
previously known as growing in Great Britain, and which 
have been named by the great Fern authorities Mr. Moore 
or Mr. Wollaston. Some of these varieties are rare. 
Others may easily be discovered by a discriminating eye. 
Let none be disconcerted if they do not light on these 
varieties, of which only a single specimen has been found 
in one locality. Let them rather be encouraged to hope 
that they may meet with some rose in the desert^ some 
jewel in the mine. The student of nature will find him- 
self amply repaid, who searches our woods and lanes, 
our lovely nooks and corners. There our Ferns thrive, 
and are intermixed with our beautiful wild fiowers, that 
rejoice in the shade. Sometimes, too, they are freshened 
and luxuriate from some dripping stream that feeds them 
with that moisture in which they so much delight. Neither 
let the damp and neglected walls and bridges be disregarded, 
for in such a station may be espied some curious and elegant 
forms of the Hartstongue and Spleenworts. On some 
of our dry hedge-banks, too, will be found some varieties 
of the Prickly Ferns, in which this neighbourhood so richly 
