Introduction. 
XXXV 
“saw it in plenty in the year 1758,” and again, though sparingly, in 1782. His figure of 
“ this phenomenon of a plant,” as he calls it, is taken from one of these specimens collected 
in this locality, of which we shall have more to say in a description of the Killarney Fern. 
Coming to a more recent period, we may select for notice some of the works of Sir William 
Jackson Hooker. This illustrious botanist was not only one of the most voluminous writers 
on ferns in general, but he also published, in 1861, a very handsome work, entitled “The 
British Ferns,” devoted especially to the British species, with coloured plates by Fitch. As 
would have been expected from the attention which Sir William Hooker was known to have 
bestowed upon the Fern tribe, this is a thoroughly satisfactory work ; it is, however, less 
complete than many others in its mode of treatment — the variations of the different species 
being almost unnoticed. A beautiful quarto volume on exotic ferns, entitled “ Filices Exoticse,” 
had been issued by the same author and artist in 1859. Sir William Hooker’s name 
will be handed down to posterity as that of the founder of the Herbarium at Kew, while it 
was under his management that the Royal Gardens there attained their present position. He 
was a man of great energy and industry, as the catalogue of his published works amply 
demonstrates — especially when it is remembered that his duties in connection with the gardens 
must have left him but little time for private work. “ Rising early and going to bed late, and 
rarely going into society,” says one who knew him, “the whole of his mornings and evenings 
were devoted to botany.” We will not attempt a complete enumeration of Sir William’s 
works on Ferns, but three seem to demand a word of notice. The first of these, the “ Genera 
Filicum,” was published in 1842 ; it is illustrated by Francis Bauer and Walter Fitch, and 
is a magnificent work, although the plates hardly show the wonderful delicacy of handling 
manifest in the former artist’s original drawings, which, with many other treasures of botanical art 
from the same pencil, are now preserved in the Department of Botany in the British Museum. It 
contains a hundred and twenty plates showing portions of the fronds (both of the natural size 
and magnified) of a hundred and thirty-five genera, illustrating the technical characters upon 
which each is based. The second work to which we wish to refer is the “ Species Filicum.” 
This must always take rank as Sir William Hooker’s magnum opus ; it occupied him for 
nearly twenty years of his life, the first volume having appeared in 1846, and the fifth and 
concluding volume in 1864. It is a magnificent work, containing full and elaborate descriptions 
of all the ferns then known, with the exception of the Royal Ferns ( Osmundaccce ) and the 
Adder’s-tongues and Moonworts ( Ophioglossacccv ) ; giving details as to their geographical range 
and distribution, and a copious synonomy. Two thousand four hundred species are thus 
described, more than five hundred of these being figured in the plates which accompany the 
volumes. At the conclusion of this work Sir William Hooker projected and commenced the 
publication of the “ Synopsis Filicum,” containing brief diagnoses of all the species known at 
the period of publication. Only the first part of this handbook had appeared when Sir 
William’s active career was terminated by his death, which took place in August, 1865, he 
having just completed his eightieth year. A memorial tablet, enclosing a cast in Wedgwood 
ware of a medallion of Sir William Hooker, was erected in Kew Church near the grave of the 
famous botanist ; and the panels which surround the medallion are appropriately decorated with 
ferns, the fronds having been modelled with much grace and delicacy. 
The work ot the “Synopsis” was promptly taken in hand by Mr. John Gilbert 
Baker, of the Royal Herbarium, Kew, and carried out in a manner well worthy of its 
projector. Completed in 1868, it contained descriptions of two thousand two hundred and 
thirty-five species. In an Appendix to this work, published in 1874, about four hundred more 
