PREFACE 



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 1 05th 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 not 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 Filicum", 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. S. 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 1 854, 

 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, etc.; 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 



