PREFACE 
Vll 
but in the present edition the whole of Africa south of the 
Zambesi is considered, on purpose to include the whole of 
Southern Rhodesia as well as those portions of the East and 
West Coasts in the same latitude. 
This extends enormously the area under review, especially 
in view of the increased facilities for comfortable travel which 
have come into existence during the twenty-two years since 
the first edition was published. 
The first edition was based on Hooker and Baker’s 
Synopsis Filicum (2nd ed.), and the nomenclature and 
arrangement followed were those of that work. 
But since that date the adoption of fixed principles in 
regard to botanical nomenclature, and especially in regard 
to priority of name, has so upset the practice then in 
vogue, that very few of the names then in use now stand, 
and on this account, if for no other, a second edition became 
necessary. 
The publication of Carl Christensen’s Index Filicum has 
set a standard of arrangement and nomenclature which gives 
promise of permanency, and this has therefore been followed 
with very little variation in the present edition, and the 
nomenclature used in the first edition has been reduced 
to synonymy. 
In connection with the distribution of species, it may be 
remarked here that localities which are now in the Transvaal 
had, by Sanderson and others, been marked “Natal” before 
the Transvaal existed, and that some confusion has been 
caused thereby: also, that “the Cape” is occasionally given 
for localities which are now outside Cape Colony. 
Among those who gave great assistance in regard to the 
first edition, my best thanks were due to Sir W. T. Thiselton- 
Dyer, K.C.M.G., C.I.E., LL.D., F.R.S., at that time Director of 
