INTRODUCTORY. 



yet whose different habits of growth show them to be quite distinct. Such errors, 

 however, were unavoidable in a work prepared mostly from dried specimens and 

 written descriptions ; and the wonder is that they were so few in number. Further 

 descriptions, by New Zealand botanists, are scattered through the pages of the 

 " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute" for the last twenty years ; but these and 

 the other works above-mentioned are inaccessible to the great majority of readers; 

 arid as it has been well said that "no scientific subject will ever be popular until it is 

 popularly taught," the want of a popular description of New Zealand ferns was early 

 felt. Ssveral attempts have been made to supplv this want, but thus far with limited 

 success. The first was in the form of a " Handbook to the Ferns of New Zealand," 

 published in Auckland in 1861, and attributed to the wife of Commissary-General 

 Jones. It was sold in aid of a church building-fund, and has been long out of print. 

 As it was stated to be chieHy compiled from " Dr. Hooker's Flora N.Z." and his son's 

 " Species filicum," the mistakes in those works Avere copied ; and, of course, it does 

 not mention the ferns which have been discovered since its date. It contained, too, 

 no glossary of the scientific terms used in it : but still, as a first attempt to popularise 

 the study of the N.Z. ferns, it was most creditable ; and those who possess copies 

 seem generally to prefer it to the more finished and complete hand-book, " Ferns 

 which grow in New Zealand and the adjacent islands, plainly described by H. E. S.L.", 

 published in Auckland in 1875. This was also the work of a lady ; but though written 

 in a popular style, it has not, I believe, reached a second edition. It contains a 

 glossary of scientific terms, but its author tried to avoid using them in her description, 

 and employed instead words which were meant to be synonymous, but which are far 

 more puzzling than the scientific terms would have been, even to non-scientific readers. 

 The extreme completeness of the descriptions is also bewildering. Instead of giving 

 merely such main peculiarities as would enable a fern to be distinguished from others 

 of its class, all sorts of petty details were noted ; and as some of these would often 

 be wanting or different in specimens gathered by collectors, the absence or difference 

 would make the identification of such specimens difficult or doubtful. The arranging 

 of all the species of each genus alphabetically also makes identification far more diffi- 

 cult ; as one has to choose between a dozen or more plants, instead of only three or 

 four ; as would be the case by adhering to the scientific classification. Of course 

 recent discoveries are wanting, and some of the old mistakes repeated and new ones 

 made ; yet the little book deserved to be far more successful and widely circulated 

 than it appears to have been. The last and best book on the subject is that on " The 

 Ferns and Fern Allies of New Zealand," by G. M. Thomson, Esq., F.L.S., of Dunedin. 

 Its published price, however, was higher than most people cared to pay for mere letter- 

 press ; and it was objected that the descriptions were too scientific for ordinary readers. 

 The size and price of the book were, ef course, slightly increased by the inclusion of 



