144 SIR WILLIAM HOOKER 



and was continued by him till his death in 1865. Owing to 

 the munificence of Bentham's bequest to the Kew Herbarium for 

 its continuance and illustration, it remains still as the principal 

 channel for the description and delineation of new and rare 

 plants from the Kew Herbarium. The fact that the number of 

 the plates is now about 3000 gives some idea of the magnitude 

 of this work, which was started by Sir William Hooker in the 

 later days of his Glasgow professorship. 



It might well be thought that the production of the works 

 already named would have sufficed to occupy a life-time, especi- 

 ally when it is remembered that they were produced in the 

 intervals of leisure after the performance of the official duties of 

 a professor, and later of the Director of the growing establish- 

 ment at Kew. But there still remain to be mentioned that noble 

 series of publications on the Filicales, which gave Sir William 

 Hooker the position of the leading Pteridologist of his time. 

 The series on ferns began with the Icones Filicum (1828-31) in 

 two folio volumes, with 240 coloured plates by R. K. Greville, 

 the text being written by Hooker. The same authors again 

 cooperated in the Enumeratio Filicum (1832), a work projected 

 to give the synonymy, citation of authors, habitat, and description 

 of new and imperfectly known species. But it only extended to 

 the first 13 genera, including the Lycopodineae, Ophioglosseae, 

 Marattiaceae, and Osmundaceae, and was then dropped. Here 

 may be conveniently introduced a number of volumes, which 

 were for the illustration of ferns, but not systematically arranged. 

 They were issued from time to time, and collectively give a 

 large but not a coordinated body of fact. They were, the First 

 Century of Ferns, issued in 1854; the Filices Exoticae in 1859; 

 a Second Century of Ferns in 1861 ; British Ferns also in 1861, 

 and Garden Ferns in 1862. 



There still remain to be mentioned three great systematic 

 works on ferns, each of which is complete in itself, viz. the Genera 

 Filicum, the Species Filicum, and the Synopsis Filicum. The 

 first of these was the Genera Filicum (1838-40), a volume issued 

 in parts, royal octavo, with 126 coloured plates illustrating 

 135 genera. It goes under the joint names of Francis Bauer 

 and Sir William Hooker, the latter being described on the 



