INTRODUCTORY. 
more passionately loved than Ferns.’ It is in- 
deed probable that the pursuit of no other branch 
of natural history has the same peculiar attraction 
for its votaries as the pursuit of the study of 
Ferns. Those, indeed, who have become thoroughly 
inoculated with the passion for Ferns know well 
what a singular fascination the search for and 
cultivation of these beautiful plants have for 
them; and this effect is undoubtedly produced, 
as The Daily Telegraph remarks, by the e subtle 
grace and tender beauty ’ of the flowerless 
plants. 
A professional writer thinks that the sugges- 
tions in ‘The Fern Paradise’ will be welcomed by 
‘ those who desire to see town life rendered 
fresher and pleasanter than it is at present, when 
the highest adjuncts of civilization have to be 
paid for by the entire absence of that beauty of 
form and colour which delights the eye in the 
country .’ 1 ‘ The conditions of city life,’ he con- 
tinues, ‘ have brought together immense crowds 
of inhabitants, and the green fields have perished 
4 The British Architect. 
49 
