Here the author not only gives his own elaborate descriptions 

 of many new, rare, or little known species, but also inserts 

 Dr. Schrader's remarks on Cape Ferns, hitherto concealed 

 in a learned periodical,* little accessible to botanical students. 

 This important publication, which unhappily has been left 

 unfinished, contains the descriptions of twenty-three genera 

 and sixty-nine species. The latest monograph on the sub- 

 ject we owe to the pen of one of the ablest Pteridologists of 

 our time. The rich collections made in this country by 

 Ecklon and Zeyher, Drege, Gueinzius, and others, supplied 

 the late and much lamented Professor Kunze (of Leipzic) 

 with ample materials for his treatise on South African Ferns. 

 This appeared under the title of " Acotyledonearum Africaa 

 Australioris recensio nova. I. Filices, in the Linnsea f for 1836 

 and 1844, and contains thirty-three genera and one hundred 

 and eleven species, many of which were perfectly new. Some 

 of them are also figured in Kunze's continuation of Schkuhr. J 

 Since then, the number of South African Ferns has been on 

 the increase, a fact borne out by the contents of the following 

 pages. 



* Goettinger gelelirte Anzeigen, 1818. 



f Linnasa. Ein Journal fiir die Botauik in ihrem ganzen Umfange. 

 X G. Kunze, Die Farrnkraeuter in colorirten Abbildungen. Leipz. 184^ 

 8q. 4to. 



