PREFACE, 
Beginners in Fern culture are 'very mucli 
perplexed by the abundance of books on the 
subject, and their general unfitness' to afford 
the aid a beginner requires. Almost everybody 
has written a book on ferns, it having become 
the fashion to consider a knowledge of the 
subject rather a disqualification than otherwise. 
When the blind attempt to lead the blind the 
result can be safely predicated, and no doubt 
the myriads of bad books on ferns that swarm 
in the cheap book shops have done their full 
share of mischief. We have fortunately plenty 
of good books on the subject, but for the 
most part they are technical and elaborate, and 
shoot over the heads of beginners. Some of 
my fern-loving friends have persuaded me to 
