2 Baker. A Summary of the new Ferns 



of specific difference adopted in Synopsis Filicum, as forms or 

 varieties. Of the distinctness of published novelties of which I 

 have not been able to see specimens, it is almost impossible 

 to judge, but I have indicated the position they would occupy 

 in the Synopsis as well as I could from the published descrip- 

 tions. In a few cases fresh material that has been received 

 shows that species that are passed over in the book for want of 

 knowledge ought to be maintained, or that species kept up as 

 distinct in the book ought to be combined. 



Besides innumerable papers in journals, in the proceedings 

 and transactions of societies and in local floras that include 

 ferns (which I need not attempt to enumerate, as they will appear 

 in the citations), the two principal books that concern our 

 subject that have appeared since 1874 are Beddome's most 

 useful Handbook of the Ferns of British India, published at 

 Calcutta in 1881, and Father Sodiro's ' Recensio Cryptogama- 

 rum Vascularium Provinciae Quitensis ' published at Quito in 

 1883. The sixteenth century of Hooker's Icones is devoted 

 entirely to Ferns. The principal collections which contain 

 new species have been made in Madagascar by Pool, Miss 

 Gilpin, Kitching, Baron, Humblot, Hildebrandt and Last ; in 

 China by Henry, Faber, Ford, Hancock, Maries and Delavay ; 

 in Perak by Scortechini ; in Tonquin by Balansa ; in the Malay 

 archipelago by Beccari, Burbidge and Dr. Hose (Bishop of 

 Singapore and Sarawak) ; in New Guinea by Beccari and Sir 

 William Macgregor; in New Caledonia by Vieillard and 

 Balansa ; in Polynesia by Moseley (Challenger expedition), 

 Home, Sir J. B. Thurston and the Rev. R. B. Comins ; in the 

 Western United States by various collectors ; in Mexico by 

 Pringle, Parry and Palmer ; in Costa Rica by Harrison and 

 Cooper; in the West Indies byjenman, Hart, Nock, Sherring 

 and Fendler ; on the Roraima expedition by im Thurn ; 

 in New Granada by Kalbreyer ; in Ecuador by Father Sodiro ; 

 and in Brazil by Glaziou. In this enumeration the species 

 are numbered as in the Synopsis Filicum. Novelties are 

 indicated by an asterisk attached to the numbers of the 

 species to which they are most nearly allied. 



