THE present volume is composed of papers on occasional sub- 

 jects, connected with the Botany of Australia, and designed 

 to lay before the public in a popular form some particulars re- 

 specting the Vegetable Kingdom of that vast continent. The 

 information thus conveyed is partly the result of personal obser- 

 vation in the colony of New South Wales, and partly a careful 

 review and selection of such facts as have appeared from time to 

 time in works not always accessible to the general reader. For 

 my article on Perns, I am deeply indebted to the five volumes of 

 the late Sir William Hooker's " Species Filicum" and to the fifth 

 volume of Dr. F. Mueller's " Fragmenta Phytographice Australia" 

 Whilst endeavouring to place on record any matters of interest 

 relative to Australian Ferns, which I have noticed in my rambles, 

 I have enumerated all the species mentioned by those eminent 

 writers, and arranged the various genera according to the system 

 indicated in the Species Filicum. Being aware that Sir William's 

 great work has had a very limited circulation in the colony, and 

 that Dr. F. Mueller's review of Australian Ferns was composed 

 in Latin and intended for the learned in all parts of the world, I 

 was impressed with the idea that a popular article on our ferns 

 might be acceptable to many persons in these colonies. My im- 

 pressions were not without foundation, for after my papers on the 

 subject had appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, I was re- 

 quested to publish them over again with sundry alterations and 

 additions in the Horticultural Magazine. To these papers, I have 

 now added a systematic list of our Australian Ferns, which I trust 

 will assist collectors in arranging their specimens according to an 

 approved method of classification, and will induce many pterido- 

 philists in different parts of Australia to add to the number of 



