PREFACE 



In submitting to the public a few short prefatory remarks 

 upon the contents of the present volume, it has appeared 

 to the author desirable to put his readers upon their guard 

 at the outset, lest the notice on the wrappers of the several 

 Nos. that the work might be expected "to comprehend all 

 the known species of Ferns," should prove ultimately the 

 cause of disappointment. He begs it therefore to be un- 

 derstood, that his meaning must be taken in the restricted 

 sense of including only 



1. Such as he himself has had the opportunity of exa- 

 mining in a perfect state, whether recent or dried. 



2. Those which have been universally received, and 

 which his own observations have tended to prove are 

 justly to be regarded, as distinct, judging principally from 

 figures ; and 



3. A considerable number, of which he has seen neither 

 plates nor specimens, but which rest upon the authority of 

 botanists, of so high a character, that it would be unwar- 

 rantable to dissent, without some specific cause, from their 

 opinions. 



