PREFACE TO THE ILLUSTRATED (FOURTH) EDITION. 
the same time, imagine that he hears the music 
of running water and feels the soft breath of 
springtide, the Author ventures to indulge the 
hope that such pleasant, though imaginary, im- 
pressions will be very potent in their effect. They 
will indeed undoubtedly strengthen the pleadings 
which this volume contains for the loving study and 
cultivation of the most graceful and beautiful of 
the plant forms which the beneficent Creator of all 
that is good and beautiful has scattered with a 
loving hand in such profuse abundance over the 
surface of our world. May the figure of a £ Fern 
basket,’ depending from a spray of ivy in this 
title-page, serve gently to suggest that Nature will 
lovingly lend herself to the plans of the Fern- 
lover who desires to make the accessories of 
Fern cultivation harmoniously blend with his 
endeavours to preserve as far as possible, in his 
extemporized Fern paradise. Nature’s unadorned 
simplicity. 
The eight illustrations in the part of the 
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