10 FERNS . BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 



not the earliest, collector sent out from Kew, and 

 who succeeded in introducing large numbers of Cape 

 Proteacem and Ericaceae, sent home several Ferns 

 from the Cape of Good Hope and Madeira. This col- 

 lector proceeded to the Cape in 1 774, and came home 

 by way of Madeira about the year 1778, returning 

 again in 1736, and remaining at the Cape during the 

 nine following years. Early in the present century 

 Mr. George Caley, who was originally a horse-doctor, 

 residing near Birmingham, but acquired a love for 

 plants through collecting herbs, was sent out by 

 Sir Joseph Banks to New South Wales, and to him 

 we owe Plat y cerium, alcicome, Doodia aspera, and 

 Duvallia pyxulata, the first introductions from Aus- 

 tralia, received about the year 1808. The next col- 

 lectors to whom the garden was indebted for Ferns, 

 are the Messrs. Allan Cunningham and James 

 Bowie. They left Kew in 1814, on a botanical 

 expedition to Brazil, where they remained exploring 

 the country and sending home large collections till 

 1816, when the former proceeded to New South Wales, 

 and the latter to the Cape of Good Hope. No living 

 Ferns appear to have resulted from the Brazilian ex- 

 pedition ; but several Australian species and one or 

 two from Norfolk Island were received from Mr. 

 Cunningham, and two or three from Mr. Bowie from 

 the Cape. 



Several other collectors were employed in the ser- 

 vice of these gardens, when under the Directorship of 

 Mr. Aiton, such as Messrs. Barclay and Armstrong ; 

 but I can trace no Ferns to them, nor, with certainty, 

 to David Lockhart, a gardener from Kew, who accom- 

 panied the ill-fated expedition of Captain Tuckey up 



