HISTOKY OF INTRODUCTION OP EXOTIC FERNS. 9 



the 23rd volume of the "Linnsea" an alphabetical index 

 of the Ferns cultivated in European gardens, and in 

 this the large number of eight hundred and forty-three 

 exotic species are enumerated ; but the authorities 

 upon which a very considerable portion of these were 

 inserted cannot be relied upon, many names having 

 been taken from such catalogues as those of Sweet, 

 Loudon, &c, and I am therefore obliged to con- 

 clude that the number given by Kunze as living in 

 Europe in 1850 is greatly exaggerated. This con- 

 clusion, too, is confirmed by the fact that in 1857, 

 after I had by correspondence become acquainted with 

 the collections in the principal gardens on the Conti- 

 nent, and after that at Kew had obtained most of their 

 novelties by means of exchange, I could, in my 

 " Catalogue of Cultivated Ferns," enumerate only five 

 hundred and sixty exotic species as known in British 

 gardens. Since the last-mentioned year, the con- 

 stantly increasing demand for Eerns consequent upon 

 their wider spread cultivation, has greatly stimulated 

 the introduction of new ones, and our collections 

 have increased at the rate of about fifty species a 

 year. 



It now remains to say a few words regarding the 

 means by which these plants have been obtained, and 

 the persons who have been most active in introducing 

 them, taking the Kew collection as a foundation. 

 Firstly, with reference to the paid collectors employed 

 in various parts of the world, directly or indirectly in 

 the service of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, and to 

 whom that garden is indebted for additions to its Fern 

 collection. It would appear that so long back as the 

 year 1775 Mr. Francis Masson, one of the earliest, if 



