HISTORY OF INTRODUCTION OF EXOTIC FERNS. 19 



many species not previously known in the gardens 

 of this country have been introduced. 



I have already alluded to the Messrs. Loddiges, of 

 Hackney, as having at an early period turned their 

 attention to Ferns, and as being the earliest to form 

 a collection of them. But the only nurserymen whose 

 names are recorded in the second edition of the 

 " Hortus Kewensis " are the old-established firm of 

 Messrs. Lee & Kennedy, of Hammersmith, who are 

 stated to have introduced Polypodium asplenifolium 

 and Asplenium monantJiemum in 1790 : in later times 

 the Messrs. Lee have imported several from New 

 Zealand. Other New Zealand species have been 

 brought into notice by Mr. Standish, of Bagshot, 

 they having been collected in New Zealand by Mr. 

 J. Watson, now a nurseryman at St. Alban's, and 

 who still continues to import. Several sent from 

 Japan by Mr. Fortune have likewise been sent out 

 from Mr. Standish's nursery. To the Messrs. Low 

 & Sons, of the Clapton nursery, we are indebted for 

 some rare Bornean and Malayan species, collected by 

 Mr. Hugh Low, jun., and amongst others for the 

 remarkable Arthropteris obliterata, called Lindscea 

 Lowii in the gardens, and the little curious Leucostegia : 

 parvula ; but more especially many rare species of 

 Hymenophyllum and Tricliomanes, as well as the rare 

 Thyrsopteris elegans, collected by Mr. Thomas Bridges 

 in Juan Fernandez. But to the Messrs. Yeitch & 

 Sons, of Exeter and Chelsea, among nurserymen, 

 must be assigned the credit of having introduced 

 the greatest number of these plants, the collectors 

 employed by them in Chili and other parts of the 

 American continent, in India, the Malayan continent 



c 2 



