PREFACE. 
Tiie Rev. Mr. Buchanan, having kindly complied 
with our request that he should prepare a Revised 
List of Natal Ferns, we beg to prefix to it, in 
lieu of preface, the following letter. Although 
leaving South Africa, Mr. Buchanan’s ardor in 
the pursuit is as great as ever, and he will not 
relinquish the study, to the elucidation of which 
he has done so much. We are, therefore, not 
without hopes that at no very distant date even 
this Revised List may be extended and improved ; 
meanwhile, we can confidently recommend it as a 
faithful manual for all who love Ferns, or desire to 
help in the advancement cf this branch of science. 
Ed. N.C. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATAL COLONIST. 
Sir, — Somewhat tardily, but with pleasure, I 
send you for publication the following Revised 
List of the Ferns of Natal, as suggested by you in 
the Colonist three months ago. It is as correct, 
and as complete in details of habitats and localities 
as I can well render it. Since the late Mr. McKen 
published his descriptive List, which, in its nomen- 
clature and descriptive parts, was drawn from the 
first edition of Synopsis Filicum , Mr. Baker has 
brought out a new edition of that' valuable work, 
with some alterations, and many additions. More 
recently, Lady Barkly has done good service to 
Pteridology, by her carefully 4 Revised List of the 
Ferns of South Africa,’ and especially by her 
minute record and interesting analysis of Cape 
localities. Not long ago, His Excellency R. W. 
Rawson, Esq., Lieutenant- Grover nor of Barbadoes, 
kindly submitted to the inspection of Lady Barkly 
and myself his private collection of South African 
Ferns, thereby furnishing a ready means of solving 
numerous difficulties in connexion with the Synopsis 
Filicum Africce Australis of Pappe and Rawson. All 
of these sources have been drawn upon in the pre- 
