REVIEWS. 
89 
authorities on the subject, gave a regular systematic account of all the 
cultivated British and foreign species of these plants. Mr. Smith, having 
the interests of the fern-grower especially before him, commences his work 
with a history of the introduction into this country of those exotic species 
which are or have been cultivated in our ferneries. His next section 
contains a brief but excellent organography of ferns, giving a description of 
the characteristic parts of the plants, to serve as an introduction to the 
systematic section of his work. In his classification he follows the u Species 
Filicum” of the late Sir William Hooker, and characterizes all the 
genera of ferns and fern-allies which possess species either native to this 
country or which have been cultivated here, the species, with their 
synonyms, being enumerated under each genus. In this new issue of his 
work Mr. Smith has added an appendix, in which the species introduced 
since 1866, the date of publication of his work, are treated in a similar 
fashion, the new information being brought into relationship with the old 
by means of the numbers of the genera. In the preparation of this appendix, 
which renders the work complete to the present date, the author has had 
the valuable aid of Mr. J. G. Baker and Mr. William Gower, of Kew. The 
work concludes with a long and elaborate chapter on the cultivation of 
ferns. Its descriptive section is illustrated with a great number of exceed- 
ingly good outline woodcuts, in which the characteristic parts of each genus 
are well shown, whilst a frontispiece furnishes similar illustrations to the 
general organography. To the student of ferns Mr. Smith’s work, with its 
careful descriptions, good figures, and copious synonymy, will prove a most 
valuable acquisition. 
The second work to which we have to call attention, although it also 
deals to a considerable extent with fern-cultivation, is of a very different 
character. The author, Mr. F. G. Heath, some time ago published a very 
nice little book under the title of the u Fern Paradise,” which was really, 
as he called it, (i a plea lor the cultivation of ferns,” and the success which 
this deservedly met with has induced him to try his luck with a larger 
venture on the same track. Mr. Heath’s “ Fern World ’’will be a very 
acceptable drawing-room book, but at the same time it possesses certain 
qualities which ought to earn for it a better position. The author writes 
with great enthusiasm of the plants of the culture of which he has in a 
manner constituted himself an apostle — he carries his reader with him in 
search of them to the beautiful combes of Devonshire, and discourses with 
much pleasant unction on the joys of fern-hunting among scenes to which 
his favourite plants lend so much of their charm. But before indulging us 
with these glimpses of “ Fernland ” he lays before us a store of solid food in 
the shape of a brief but good sketch of the general structure, character, and 
mode of growth of ferns, with notes on their classification, distribution, 
uses, and folk-lore, followed by several chapters on the culture of the plants. 
The illustrations of this portion of the book consist of a few woodcut figures 
in the text. The section on ferny scenery is illustrated with four beautiful 
views of localities in Devonshire. 
The last part of Mr. Heath’s work, occupying rather more than half his 
volume, is devoted to a description of the British species of ferns. His 
descriptions are not formal, but sufficiently precise to enable the species to 
