146 SIR WILLIAM HOOKER 



the most enduring monument to my father's labour as a syste- 

 matist and descriptive pteridologist, is comprised in five 8vo 

 volumes, embracing nearly 2500 species, with 304 plates by 

 Fitch, illustrating 520 of these. It occupied much of the latter 

 eighteen years of his life, the last part appearing in 1864." The 

 work is a most extraordinary mine of detailed information. 

 It is a condensed extract from his own unrivalled Herbarium of 

 Ferns, with exact data of distribution, and collectors' numbers. 

 Probably no family so extensive as this has ever been mono- 

 graphed by a single hand with such minuteness and exhaustive 

 care. It is the classic book of reference in the systematic 

 study of ferns. But as indicated in the preface to the Genera, 

 the judgement as to which genera are "worthy of being re- 

 tained" had been exercised. The result was the merging of a 

 number of the genera of Presl, and others, into neighbouring 

 genera. Though this was somewhat drastically done in the 

 Species Filicum, it comes out more prominently in the work upon 

 which he entered in the very last months of his life, viz. the 

 Synopsis Filicum. This work was published in 1868 as an octavo 

 volume, with 9 coloured plates, containing analyses of 75 genera. 

 Sir Joseph tells us (I.e. p. 117) that "Upon this work my father 

 was engaged up to a few days before his decease, and 48 pages 

 of it in print were left on his desk, together with the preface and 

 much matter in manuscript. After full consideration it appeared 

 to me that, with the material in hand, the aid of the Species 

 Filicum completed only three years earlier, and of the Fern 

 Herbarium in perfect order, and named according to his views, 

 a competent botanist should find no great difficulty in carrying 

 on this work to its completion. Such a botanist I knew my 

 friend Mr Baker to be, and also that he had made a study of 

 Ferns, and accepted my father's limitations of their genera and 

 species. I therefore requested that gentleman to undertake the 

 work, which to my great satisfaction he has done. The Synop- 

 sis Filicum contains 75 genera, and about 2252 species, inclusive 

 of Osmundaceae, Schizaeaceae, Marattiaceae, and Ophioglossa- 

 ceae, which are not included in the Species Filicum" This work 

 summarised the Pteridological results of Sir William Hooker's 

 life. The total number of plates of ferns published by him is 



