INTRODUCTION. 
3 
outline and disposition of parts, which is so common among 
the Ferns as to have become associated in idea with this 
portion of the vegetable creation. Gay colours are for the 
most part wanting, and they wear, while in life and health, 
nothing beyond a livery of sober green, which can scarcely 
be said to gain ornament from the brownish scales and 
seed-patches with which, in some species, it is associated 
on the living plant. In certain exotic forms, indeed, as 
for example in some species of Gymnogramma and Chei- 
lantheSf the lower surface is covered more or less with a 
silvery or golden powder, which adds considerably to their 
beauty; and in the wide range of the Ferns of all nations 
there is to be observed considerable variety, even of the 
tints of green. The more sober-tinted natives of our 
northern latitude can, however, boast but of comparatively 
little such variety of hue. It is not, therefore, in their 
colouring that their attractions rest: nor is it in their 
endurance ; for a large proportion of the native species lose 
all their beauty as soon as the frost reaches them, and for 
nearly one half of the year they are dormant, unless arti¬ 
ficially sheltered. We therefore conclude, that it is the 
elegant forms and graceful habits of the majority of the 
Ferns, native and exotic, which render them so generally 
