VI 
PBEFACE TO THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION. 
— 4 A Fern Paradise at Home 5 and 4 The Hygienic 
Influence of Plants in Rooms’ (with the excep¬ 
tion of the Introduction to Part II.)—have been 
written for the present edition. Alterations so 
extensive have necessarily required an increase 
in the size of the volume and the re-setting of the 
type throughout. 
But the especial feature of this new edition is 
its illustrations. And here the Author has to 
make acknowledgment to a host of kind friends 
for the suggestion that the utility of his 4 Plea ’ 
for Fern culture would be greatly enhanced and 
strengthened by pictorial embellishment. 
An illustrated title-page appeared to the 
Author to be indispensable to the present edi¬ 
tion : and if the Reader will indulgently imagine 
—in looking upon this first and introductory page 
—that he is looking through an opening in a 
ferny embankment at a perspective of clustering 
Ferns in graceful association with shady rocks 
and woodland knolls; and if the Reader will, at 
