xii 



PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 



THE edition of the Hand-List of Ferns and Fern- 

 Allies cultivated in the Royal Gardens which was issued 

 in 1895 has for some time been exhausted. Since its 

 publication some change has taken place in the compo- 

 sition of the Fern-collection. The present edition, the 

 preparation of which for the press has been entrusted to 

 Mr. C. H. Wright, A.L.S., Assistant in the Herbarium, is 

 an attempt to enumerate the species and varieties now in 

 cultivation at Kew. The species that have been acquired 

 since 1895 are ihere included ; those that are not now in 

 cultivation at Kew have been omitted. A few casual errors 

 that had crept into the previous edition have been corrected. 

 To facilitate the identification of the plants selected 

 references have been given to publications in which 

 reliable figures are to be found. In other respects the 

 present edition follows the lines on which the edition of 

 1895 was prepared. 



The table drawn up by Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S., in 

 1867, to show the percentage of the total number of ferns 

 that had been collected up to that time in different 

 parts of the world, which is included in the preface to 

 the 1895 edition of this hand-list, is found, in the light of 

 our present knowledge of the groups dealt with, to 

 require revision. It will not be possible, until some 

 general list, such as Carl Christensen's admirable Index 

 Filicum (now in course of publication) is available, 



