PREPACK. Xlll 



highly distinguished naturalist which led, in the first in- 

 stance, to the publication of the ' Icones Filicum ' by the 

 present author, in conjunction with Dr. Greville. With- 

 out the same rich materials for working upon, this Synop- 

 sis would never have been undertaken. It is not, however, 

 for specimens alone that obligations are in this instance to 

 be acknowledged. The same most kind friend still further 

 communicated a copy of all his own and Dr. Roxburgh's 

 valuable MSS. on the subject of Indian Ferns ; which 

 proved of eminent service, taken, as they were, in many 

 cases, from entire fronds of the plants, which cannot be 

 preserved in the herbarium. More than ordinary collec- 

 tions have also been received Irom the Royal Herbarium 

 of Berlin, from the late Mr. Griffith, Mr. Gardner, Dr. 

 Wight, Mrs. Geul. Walker, Rev. Mr. Colenso, Professor 

 Wm. Jameson, H. Cadogan Rothery, Esq, &c. &c. &c. 



The author's plates and descriptions of the ' Genera oi 

 Ferns,'* (genera constituted by the most distinguished 

 Pteridologists), have been some lime before the public. 

 He there declined pledging himself to the adoption 

 of these, or any particular portion of these, genera j 

 on the ground that " a more accurate examination ot 

 the several species of each genus would probably enable 



* ' Genera Filicum ; ' ov Illustrations of the Genera of Ferns, chiefly 

 from tbe coloured drawings of ibe late Francis Bauer, Estj. 



