8 BRITISH FERNS. 



has employed it. The genera, for which no authority is given, have not been 

 employed by any previous writer on the British Ferns. The works in which the 

 genera will be found are these : — 



Bolton. — Filices Britanniae, by James Bolton, 1 Vol. 



j)oji. — Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 18 Vols. Remarks on 



some British Ferns. By David Don. Vol. xvii. p. 435. 

 Gray.— A Natural Arrangement of British Plants. By Samuel Frederick 



Gray. 2 Vols. 

 Hooker.— The British Flora, by William Jackson Hooker. 1 Vol. 

 Loudon. — Hortus Britannicus, by J. C. Loudon. 1 Vol. 

 Smith.— The English Flora, by Sir James Edward Smith. 4 Vols. 



SPECIES OF BRITISH FERNS. 



In accordance with the foregoing Table, the species which 

 follow are arranged. In a few instances, where the species of 

 other authors are treated as varieties, the descriptions have been 

 copied verbatim, lest I should be charged with ignorance of the 

 identical plant intended. With these exceptions the definitions 

 are exclusively from nature. The illustrations, vdthout any 

 exception, are from nature, and are dravm by myself on the 

 wood : the manifest discrepancy between previous figures and my 

 own will abundantly prove that mine are original : nothing can 

 be more striking — and I allude to the subject with regret, since 

 it is one likely to cause confusion — than the difference between 

 my figures, and some recently published by another writer : the 

 illustrations in each work, professing to represent the same Fern, 

 are in many instances more dissimilar than any two species of 

 Ferns which Great Britain produces : the figures of fine varieties 

 of Polypodium vulgare, described by Linneus and Mackay, offer 

 an. abundant proof of this assertion. 



The list of localities will, I fear, be considered rather meagre, 

 but I have found it needful to exercise the greatest caution in 

 this respect. In the numerous specimens kindly sent me for 

 examination, I have sometimes found the seedHng form of 

 Lastraea Filix-mas named Woodsia Ilvensis, and Lastraea Oreo- 

 pteris in numberless instances named Thelypteris : these and 

 similar errors have thrown a doubt over many lists, which I 

 could not verify by examination. 



