PREFACH. 
In this account of the Ferns of the Southwest, it has been thought best 
to give not merely a report of such as have been collected by the Surveys 
under Lieutenant Wheeler, but, including these, to make a full report of all 
the Ferns discovered hitherto in the regions lying west of the 105th degree 
of west longitude and south of the 40th degree of north latitude. Since 
many of the species are described only in works which are inaccessible to 
most collectors and amateurs of Ferns, it seems desirable to give reasonably 
full descriptions of all the species and genera which are net found in Gray’s 
Manual, and to even describe anew a few which are given in that work. 
The earliest knowledge of the Ferns of California was based on the collec- 
tions of Adelbert von Chamisso, who visited San Francisco in October, 1816. 
The Ferns which he brought home were described by Prof. Georg Fried- 
rich Kaulfuss in a little work called “ Enumeratio Fiticum”, published at 
Leipsic in 1824. Messrs. Lay and Collie, the botanists attached to Captain 
Beechey’s voyage in H. M. S. Blossom, made collections near San Fran- 
cisco and Monterey in 1827. Drs. J. 8S. Newberry, C. C. Parry, and J. M. 
Bigelow made some collections in 1850-1855, mostly about San Diego, 
though the latter also collected near the 35th parallel in 1853 and 1854, 
and Dr. Parry has continued his work in California and elsewhere to the 
present day. General Amos B. Eaton collected some Ferns in the neighbor- 
hood of Monte Diablo in 1855, and Professor Brewer botanized in many 
parts of the State in 1860-1864. Other persons who have collected Ferns 
more or less abundantly in California were Dr. A. Kellogg, Mr. Thomas 
Bridges, Prof. Henry N. Bolander, Messrs. Harford and Dunn, Mr. F. A. 
Miller, and Prof. Alphonso Wood, ete.; and recently good collections of 
Ferns have been received from Mr. J. G. Lemmon, Mrs. Ellwood Cooper, 
Dr. Edward Palmer, Mrs. Mary E. Pulsifer Ames, Mrs. R. M. Austin, Dr. 
Joseph T. Rothrock (of this Survey), Mr. Daniel Cleveland, and others. 
The Ferns of Arizona and New Mexico were first collected by the botanists 
of the Mexican Boundary Survey (Messrs. Parry, Bigelow, Wright, and 
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