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INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
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Peeks having of late years, by their elegance and beauty, 
become great favourites in our gardens and conservatories, 
numerous works calculated to facilitate their study have 
issued from the press, and advertisements of new ones 
constantly meet our eye. # Gratifying as this fact undoubt- 
edly is, as proving the popular interest the subject has ac- 
quired, it has however been attended with the great disad- 
vantage of having led to a maze of conflicting views and 
an almost endless mass of synonyms ; for, as the leading 
authors differ in their systems of classification and nomen- 
clature, few Perns now possess less than two names, many 
have more, some even exceeding twenty. Such being the 
case, amateurs and cultivators complain- — and surely with 
good reason— of the difficulty experienced in obtaining 
* Since the above was sent to the press, a new work by Sir 
W. J. Hooker, entitled c Filices Exoticse ; or, Figures and De- 
scriptions of Exotic Ferns, particularly of such as are most de- 
serving of Cultivation , 5 has been announced. This important and 
mucli-desired work is to be published in monthly parts (commen- 
cing in September), each part containing eight coloured plates. 
