THE FERN PARADISE. 
for him. He obtains a Fern-book ; but after 
reading two or three pages he wearily throws it 
aside. Should it chance to contain coloured en- 
gravings of his favourites, he may linger for a few 
moments over it ; but when he has once scanned 
the artist’s efforts, he has seen all that he desires 
to see. 
It is the old story. The language of science, as 
generally rendered by our scientific writers, is a 
language for the few, and science will never be 
popular until it is popularly taught. 4 The lan- 
guage of flowers ’ has been taught ; cannot an 
attempt be made to teach the language of Ferns ? 
These beautiful plants seem to be especially 
designed for universal cultivation, for even the 
tiniest of the species in each of the numerous 
wonderful and exquisitely formed seed-cases con- 
cealed at the back of its fronds bears countless 
myriads of seeds. The common kinds of Ferns — 
common only in the sense of being plentiful — are 
to be found almost everywhere ; but the home of 
our native Ferns is Devonshire — 4 the Garden of 
England.’ 
Amidst all our English counties, Devonshire 
66 
