PREFACE. 
iv 
when tropical reeds and conifers, lycopods, and tree-ferns 
adorned this land, the scenery of our vegetation resembled 
that of the warmest parts of New Zealand, and of islands in 
the same latitude. Nothing short of a visit to such localities 
could give an idea of the Fern scenery of Ancient Britain, 
exhibiting the damp shaded ravines and gullies of sub-tropical 
countries in which this beautiful order reigns in profuse 
luxuriance; where the tree-ferns attain their most exalted 
height, and spread in drooping loveliness a crown of fronds 
from six to eighteen feet in length, from an erect taper 
stem often exceeding twenty feet; and where the trail¬ 
ing species hang from stem to stem, and crag to crag, in 
festoons and fringes of the deepest green; while beneath, 
elegant, featherlike, or broad swordlike fronds form a soft 
cool carpet; while every cliff is crowned with an over¬ 
spreading mantle of maidenhair, and the very chinks through 
which water drips and runs, are lined with the more 
minute species: even the marsh displaying its wiry lux¬ 
uriant Medina, and the dry rocky plains rendered cheer¬ 
ful and bright by the wildest profusion of brakes and 
polypodia. Coal was evidently formed by the deposit of 
the fronds and stems of tropical Ferns, and of other plants; 
parts of the foliage, &c., being sufficiently preserved in some 
cases to show the fruit and structure of the tribes. It is 
not probable, however, that one species of that primitive 
Flora has survived; the Ferns of our times being peculiar 
to cooler regions, and attaining less exalted stature and 
profusion. 
But no less interesting are Ferns in point of Structure. 
They originate from a minute bud or bulb, which in a dust-like 
