The ‘Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland’ was written by Thomas Moore (1821-87), who was the curator of the Chelsea Botanic Garden and edited by John Lindley (1799-1865). Henry Bradbury (1829-60) was the eldest son of William Bradbury of Bradbury & Evans, printers and publishers. In 1850 Henry Bradbury went to Vienna to study at the Imperial printing office where he learnt of nature printing, where impressions of natural objects are made on printing plates. Back in London he used a similar process to produce the plates for Moore’s work on ferns. This famous book was one of the first nature-printed books produced in Britain. There were numerous claims to the patent and invention of the technique and Bradbury was heavily embroiled in it all. So much so that it is quite possible that it led to his early death when he committed suicide by drinking acid. Fischer (1933) 89-91; Nissen BBI (1966) 1400; ODNB; Stafleu & Cowan (1976-86) 6275.