ADVERTISEMENT. 



THE attempt now made to produce a Catalogue of Ferns 

 arranged on some uniform plan, of convenient bulk and 

 moderate price as complete withal as a diligent research in 

 the publications accessible to him has enabled the author to 

 make it, has sprung from the acknowledged want of some 

 recent enumeration of the species of Terns, embodying the 

 modern principles of classification. Such an enumeration! 

 required, in order to render it fully intelligible, that a synopsis 

 of the Genera of Ferns should be prefixed. It seemed also ne- 

 cessary to its utility, that the Catalogue itself should indicate 

 under the adopted species, the following particulars, namely : 

 (1) references to the most useful general publications, as well 

 as to those detached memoirs, in which they may be classified 

 or described ; (2) an enumeration of their synonymes ; (3 ) re- 

 ferences to figures ; and (4) a summary of their known 

 habitats sufficient to illustrate their geographical range. 



It will be obvious, that in order to render this informa- 

 tion accessible as speedily as practicable, a thorough criticism 

 of the synonymy could not be attempted, for this would have 

 involved the actual labour of a complete Species Filicum, and 

 could not indeed have been accomplished, without long de- 

 laying the publication of the list. Free use has consequently 

 been made of the statements, critical or otherwise, of those 

 botanists who have devoted attention to the subject, the whole 

 being blended with such personal information as the author has 

 been able to bring to bear on the subject. The work is conse- 

 quently to be regarded as, mainly, a compilation. It has how- 

 ever been the endeavour both of the author and the publisher, 

 to render it, as such, not only useful and readily available, but 

 as free from error as possible. To this end, the greater 

 number of the references given, have been actually examined ; 



