200 
which most of the descriptions and plates upset in this series of 
books have been made are deposited in the Kew Herbariu 
The living collection in the garden owes its completeness at largely 
to the zeal and assiduity with which the veteran pteridologist, Mr. John 
Smith, curator of the Royal Gardens from 1841-63, watched over it for 
more than 40 ears. 
following aa op of its origin and development : —* n 
I found the collection of ferns at Kew extremely poor, espe as 
regards tropical species, very many of those introduced in gna 
years having been lost and very few new ones add 
. no 
fern house, the area they oceupied being 6 ft. by 12 ft. These formed 
the nucleus of the now great collection. They were successively 
added to by importations of living Leese ba also plants raised from 
= Mese fro m he rbari um e 
are enumerated.” 
The principal books published by Mr. Smith are his Ferns, British, 
and Foreign, issued in 1866, which contains a classified list ‘of all the 
species then known in cultivation, full directions for the cultivation of 
ferns of the different climatic types and by far the most complete 
history of their gradual introduction which has ever appeared in print, 
and his Historia Filicum, issued in 1875, which contains woodcuts of 
220 types and gives a full exposition of his views on fern classification. 
In 1868 the last published list was prepared by Mr. J. G. Baker. It 
enumerates 802 species and varieties of ferns and 48 of fern —— 
The present list comprises 1116 species and varieties of ferns 
of fern allies ; ei is exclusive of British ferns, of which 586 aided 
-are in cultivatio 
The cilieétioi falls into three great groups :—(i.) Tropical; (ii.) 
Temperate; and (iii. ns 
. Hou 
The Temperate Ferns are cultivated in [ No: Il : “the Filmy Ferns 
have a separate House (No. A.), constructed for the special treat- 
ment which they require. The fine "ese of Temperate Tree Ferns 
is contained in the Temperate 
The Hardy Ferns are Er on and about a small rockery, i 7 of 
the Key Plan, and forming the south boundary of Lawn L. 
The structural development of the buildings in which the collection 
is housed has kept pace with its growth. Their history may be given 
briefly. 
The Tropical Fern House (No. II.) is a span-roofed eh 129 feet 
long, 34 feet broad, and 15 feet high in the centre. It has a wide 
transept on the south side, 40 feet long, 33 feet wide, and 19 feet high. 
