5 
amounting to about 40. In 1825 I arranged the 
tropical species in^ a group at tbe end of the then 
lean-to house . . . now included in the tropical 
fern house, the area they occupied being 6 It. by 12 ft. 
These formed the nucleus of the now great collection. 
They were successively added to by importations of 
living plants^ as also plants raised from spores obtained 
from herbarium specimens." 
The collection continued yearly to increase, and in 
1846 [1845] I drew up a list of the collection, which was 
published in an Appendix to the Botanical Magazvae, 
for that year ; the number then amounted to 400 [378] 
species. This in 1857 [1856] was followed by another 
list, entitled ^ Catalogue of Cultivated Ferns,' in which 
600 [504] species 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 classifica'ion. 
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 allies. 
The present list comprises 1,116 species and varieties 
of ferns and 97 of fern allies ; this is exclusive of British 
ferns of which 586 varieties are in cultivation. 
