1 Handbook to the Ferns of British India, 

 Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula.' Here we 

 must not forget to mention Gray who, in his 

 treatise on the ' Botany of the Bombay Presi- 

 dency,' ' mentions about fifty species of Ferns. 

 If our readers wish to consult the plant- 

 material on which this volume is based, they 

 will find a complete collection of the ferns 

 mentioned, in the Herbarium of St. Xavier's 

 College. In addition we examined the herbaria 

 of the Economic Botanist at Poona, of the 

 Bombay Natural History Society, of Mr. L. J. 

 Sedgwick, and of the Sibpur Botanic Gardens, 

 Calcutta. 



2. THE STRUCTURE OF FERNS 



Before the beginner can proceed with the 

 study of Ferns, it will be well for him to be 

 acquainted with their structure and the terms 

 which are in vogue and which it is impossible to 

 omit in any treatise on Ferns, however ele- 

 mentary it may be. If the terminology is made 

 clear at the outset, very little difficulty will be 

 experienced by the reader in the course of his 

 studies of Ferns. 



1 W.r Gray : The ' Botaay of the Bombay Residency ' ; in 

 Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xxv. 



