215 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Handbook to the Ferns of British India, Ceylon, and the Mal 
eninsula. By Col. R.H. Beppome, F.L.S., late Conservator ‘of 
Forests, Madras. With 300 illustrations. Calcutta : Thacker, 
a & Co.; London: Thacker & Co., 1883. Bro. pp. xiv. 
A nanpsoox of Indian ferns in a compact foes and at a mode- 
rate price has been much wanted, and no one has ever had a more 
hen and practical acquaintance with these plants than Colonel 
Beddome. His official work for the last thirty years had caused 
i i ; rn India 
tinuation of Wight’s ‘Icones,’ that fill the same place for Indian 
ferns that ‘English Botany’ does for our ayy flora. His ‘ Ferns 
of Southern India and Ceylon,’ which was issued in parts and 
completed in 1868, contains plates of O71 ‘ott and varieties. 
His ‘ Ferns of British In dia,’ in two volumes, which was completed 
within 0 area covered by the first volume 
Supplement, which was published in 1876, he gives plates of 45 
additional species, car e whole series to 660 plates, and a 
revised enumeration and classification of the whole. These were 
all brought out whilst he was still in India. He has now retired 
from his official po osition - returned to England, and has spent 
isur 
The area covered is oes the same as that inaluded in the 
‘Flora of British India,’ by Sir J. D. Hooker, and within its 
bounds are found about sesnby ive per cent. of all the known 
fe 
Species. In no departmen Aga totany is ae synonymy more 
extensive and intricate ale ne have more bad species been 
ad a comparatively resent date cake all that had 
st written about In s by authors who had never 
has mainly been gained in Southern India, and who, after a 
leisurely comparison at fata of his own collections with the types 
