Journal of Travel and Natural History 256 



FERNS OF EUROPE AND THE ATLANTIC 

 ISLANDS^ 



THIS work is a handbook in a form and at a price adapted to 

 ensure for it a wide circulation, containing an enumeration 

 and full description of the ferns (species, varieties, and forms) of 

 Europe, the Canary, Cape Verde, and Azore Islands, and the 

 northern half of Asia. So far as ferns are concerned, we can only 

 regard the whole of the northern hemisphere, leaving out the 

 Himmalayas, as forming one single and indivisible geographical 

 region. In every part of it the species common to the whole 

 region form a large proportion of the total number that occur. 

 This is the case if we count the number of species, and still more 

 so if we take their relative abundance into consideration. The 

 total number of species which belong to this region does not 

 rise above 150. There are twice as many ferns to be found in the 

 Himmalayas as in the whole of the rest of the northern hemisphere. 

 We have nearly one-third of the 150 in Great Britain. As they 

 stand in the present work, the total number of European species is 

 seventy, and for the rest of the area included forty-five have to be 

 added. Perhaps it would have been better, looking at the matter 

 in the geographical light, to have excluded the Cape Verde's, the 

 affinity of the vegetation of which is with Senegambia rather than 

 with the other outlying African Islands ; but the number of Cape 

 Verde species is only about twenty in all, which twenty, however, 

 includes six or eight characteristically tropical species which would 

 otherwise be omitted. For the last quarter of a century Dr Milde 

 has made a special study of the European ferns, and he is well- 

 known as a careful and painstaking observer. The ferns of our 

 own islands have been so thoroughly studied and written upon 

 that it is not to be expected that a foreigner should be able to 

 throw any fresh light upon them ; but we would none the less 

 strongly recommend the book to such of our readers as devote 

 themselves to the British species, because Dr Milde has traced out 

 the varying forms of each so carefully throughout the entirety of 

 their geographical range, as to make the work a profitable study 

 for all our home-botanists. The extent to which false species have 



* Filices Europce et Atlantidis, Asire Minoris et Sibirise, auctore Dr J. Milde. 

 Lipsicae, A. Felix, 1867, Svo., p. 311. 



