Bolany. % 185 



the most elegant and graceful of vegetable productions, and which an emi- 

 nent French author has lately elevated to the rank of a distinct Class 

 among plants, does not appear hitherto to have been illustrated in the de- 

 gree that it deserves. Besides that beauty of external appearance in the 

 Ferns, which must strike even the most casual observer ; the power and 

 wisdom of the Creator are nowhere more evident, than in the curious and 

 varied forms of their fructification. They seem to hold a middle rank be- 

 tween the Cotyledonous and Acotyledonous plants, with somewhat the habit 

 of the former, though possessing the simpler organization for the produc- 

 tion of their seeds which characterizes the latter. The largest of them 

 emulate the Palms in their stature and mode of growth, while the smallest 

 are hardly discernible at first view from some of the Hepaticee, especially 

 from the genera Marchantia and Jungermannia. 



The ferns are not without their obvious use in the arts, and in domestic 

 economy. In the East Indies and New Zealand several species are em- 

 ployed as food by the natives. In our own country, and in the north of" 

 Europe, potash is procured from them after combustion, and this sub- 

 stance is so combined in the Pteris aquilina, or common brake, with resinous 

 extractive matter, as to allow of its being used as a substitute for soap. 

 Tannin, again, is another product of Ferns, and gallic acid of the Scolo- 

 pendrium officinale, and Polypodium vulgare. Many of our most abun- 

 dant species are employed medicinally, and one already mentioned, the 

 Pteris aquilina, affords, in its stalk, an excellent covering for the roofs of 

 houses, and as such is very commonly used in the countries where it 

 grows. 



For a long time, the exotic kinds of fern were almost wholly excluded 

 from our stoves and greenhouses, in consequence of an erroneous opinion 

 that their culture was attended with so much difficulty as to be nearly 

 impracticable. The reverse is now found to be the case, and the Messrs 

 Shepherd of the Liverpool Botanic Garden were the first to prove that 

 these plants might be raised from seed, even after that seed had, for many 

 years, been attached to specimens in the herbarium. It was thus that 

 Willdenow enriched the Berlin Garden with numerous species that existed 

 in the Hortus Siccus of the German botanist ; and to confine ourselves to 

 instances in our own country, we need only mention the Liverpool Gar- 

 den, the Royal Garden at Kew, that of Messrs Loddiges at Hackney, and 

 those of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and of the late Mr Hasell at Ipswich, 

 to prove the facility with which the ferns may now be cultivated, and 

 what a valuable addition they make to our collections. In the herbarium, 

 too, no plants retain their form and colour so well. 



Few, indeed, are the works which have, by means of faithful represen- 

 tation, aided the study of this tribe of plants. Professor Raddi of Flo- 

 rence, has lately published a book with numerous plates, entirely confined 

 to the ferns of Brazil, and Schkuhr's Filices contains sufficiently accurate 

 representations of many, and especially the more common kinds. 



To compensate, in some measure, for what is wanting in these and other 

 similar publications of less note, Dr Hooker and Dr Greville have under- 



