XI 



use in gardens and which are here referred to the correct 

 name in each case. It has not been thought necessary, 

 therefore, to supply an index. Those who wish to pursue 

 the study of fern -nomenclature further may fall back on 

 Hooker and Baker's Synopsis Filicum, upon which the 

 present hand-list is substantially based. 



The fern allies (ii.) have also been grouped alphabetically. 

 It has not been thought necessary for the present purpose 

 to separate them according to a botanical classification. 



The cultivated and feral varieties of British ferns (iii.) 

 have been enumerated in an appendix. Although the 

 collection of them at Kew is very rich, they stand in a 

 different position to the collection of recognised and well- 

 determined species. Apart from their intrinsic beauty, 

 which is often striking, they are of considerable scientific 

 interest as showing the range of variation due to crossing 

 and seminal reproduction. The amateurs and cultivators 

 who have raised them have furnished them with Latin 

 names, often cumbrous and fantastic, which have received 

 no formal definition. They cannot, therefore, be fixed or 

 quoted for any scientific purpose ; they have, in fact, the 

 same relationship to the species from which they have 

 originated as bedding pelargoniums bear to Pelargonium 

 zonale or as the drumhead and other cabbages to Brassica 

 oleracea. 



