158 REVIEWS. [MO'V} 



at the native productions of tlie coast and the downs adjoining 

 Brighton. The work is accompanied with a good clear map de- 

 scriptive of both sea and land. The book is well printed, and 

 the initials of the chapters are embellished with neat cuts illus- 

 trative of the subjects that follow. 



J. A. 



A Priced Catalogue, with brief descriptive and cultural remarks, 

 of the extensive collection of Stove, Greenhouse, and hardy 

 Exotic and Bj^itish Ferns: grown for sale by Robert Sim, 

 Nurseryman, etc.. Foot's Cray, S.C., Kent. 



This comprehensive catalogue of Ferns contains 818 distinct 

 articles (species and varieties) with brief distinctive characteris- 

 tics of each, with the common synonyms from the works of 

 Messrs. Smith and Moore, The British species, with their varie- 

 ties, occupy the first sixteen pages of this ample list, which con- 

 tains in all sixty-four pages. 



Athyrium Filix-foemina has in this collection the large number 

 of twelve descendants. Mr. Moore enumerates in his last edi- 

 dion of his very useful Handbook as many as twenty-three. 



Lastrea dilatata, Presl, has produced seven varieties in Mr. 

 Sim's collection. 



Mr. Moore's varieties are upwards of a score. Lastrea Filix- 

 mas, one of the very commonest, and next to the Lady-fern the 

 most magnificent and elegant of our indigenous species, boasts 

 nine ^•arieties in this collection, several of them being of consi- 

 derable pecuniary value. Here are also some lovely forms of the 

 elegant Polystichum angulare. Almost all the varieties of this 

 species are of great commercial importance, and objects of in- 

 terest to the genuine fern-collector. 



Scolopendrium vulgare is, however, the prince of British ferns 

 among the lovers of varieties. Mr. Sim possesses about half a 

 hundred of these fern-treasures. No. 125, S. ramo -marginatum, 

 is valued at from one to two guineas per plant. 



It is very probable that the varieties of ferns, like those of 

 roses, strawberries, and cereals, are endless. In collections they 

 will constantly occur, though not perhaps always so decidedly 

 distinct and so unmistakeably desirable as to be uniformly satis- 

 factory to the nurseryman and the amateur. 



Mr. Sim's renown as an eminentlv successful cultivator for 



