38 
THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
ferns as his previous Prodromus, but in 1825 Prof, de Schlech- 
tendal began to issue his Adumbrationes Plantarum , the first 
volume of which was on Cape ferns, and, though unfinished, 
it is the most important work ever issued on South African 
ferns. In its unfinished state it contains excellent figures of 
30 species, and descriptions of 70 species of ferns and fern 
allies, almost all good species, still maintained, though in some 
cases under different names. 
1823 saw the arrival of C. F. Ecklon and K. L. P. Zeyher, 
while in 1826 J. F. Drege arrived. All three collected plants 
for sale, and from their collections the whole flora of South 
Africa as far as Natal and Transvaal may be said to have 
been made known, while, at the same time, Burke travelled 
in the Transvaal, and Gueinzius made a most complete 
collection of the ferns of Natal. 
Prof. Presl’s Tentamen P teridographiae (1836) brought the 
knowledge of ferns generally well up to date, and Kunze, in 
the same year, reviewed the ferns of South Africa in Linnaea% 
after having examined the collections of all these more recent 
collectors. 
He made out 33 genera and 111 species, many of which 
were new, but have since been sunk as varieties only. Sub- 
sequent numbers of Linnaea contain Kunze’s further investi- 
gations, especially those of the year 1844, and some African 
species are figured by Kunze in Die Farnkrduter in colorirten 
Abbildungen (Leipzig, 1840). 
Harvey in his Genera of South African Plants , 1838 (1st 
edition), describes 31 genera, but does not definitely indicate 
the number of species. 
Sir Wm Hooker’s Genera Filicum (1838) and his Species 
Filicum (1846-64) considerably altered the nomenclature, but 
Hooker’s classification was not followed by Pappe and Rawson, 
in whose Synopsis Filicum Africae Australis (1858) descriptions 
are given as a united group of all the South African ferns 
then known 2 . Kunze’s nomenclature and descriptions are very 
1 Plantarum acotyledonearum Africae Australioris recensio nova, I. Filices,. 
Linnaea , 1836. 
2 This first appeared in the Cape Monthly Magazine , Nov. and Dec. 1857, 
and then as a pamphlet in 1858. 
