PREFACE. ix 
when it comes before him. It may indeed be assumed that in the 
Ferns, and many other plants, a knowledge of the inconspicuous 
parts of fructification might often be dispensed with, if if were 
possible accurately to represent by figures, or to describe by words, 
the real form and condition of the larger organs. On these points, 
good Nature-Printing conveys to the eye, positive and accurate 
impressions. 
The present Work has been prepared, with the view of showing 
by unmistakeable evidence the differences which really exist among 
the Ferns which grow wild in Great Britain and Ireland. These 
beautiful plants have of late years attracted so much attention, and 
are now so universally cultivated, that it has become most desirable 
to establish upon solid grounds the true value of their characteristic 
marks—a result which it is hopeless to expect from mere descriptions 
or imperfect engravings. 
This is not the place to discuss the soundness of the principles 
upon which the modern genera of Ferns are based; but we quite 
agree with the remark of Dr. Lindley, in the preface to the folio 
edition, that * the distribution of veins, and the position of sori with 
respect to them, are characters of equal importance with the form, 
or absence or presence of an indusium, or the direction in which it 
separates from the epidermis, or the other peculiarities on which the 
founders of Pteridology once exclusively relied.” 
The text of the present volumes will, it is hoped, be found little 
in need of explanation. It may however be briefly mentioned, 
that besides a full and plain account of the species themselves, an 
attempt has been made to record, and to give some account of 
the multitudinous variations which, even in so limited a geogra- 
phical area as that of Great Britain and Ireland, have been met 
with by diligent explorers, within a very few years. 
VOL, I. 

