HISTORY OP INTRODUCTION OF EXOTIC FERNS. 19 
many species not previously known in tke gardens 
of tliis country liave been introduced. 
I have already alluded to the Messrs. Loddiges, of 
Hackney, as having at an early period turned their 
attention to Ferns, and as being the earliest to form 
a collection of them. But the only nurserymen whose 
names are recorded in the second edition of the 
“ Hortus Kewensis ” are the old-established firm of 
Messrs. Lee & Kennedy, of Hammersmith, who are 
stated to have introduced Polypodium asplenifolium 
and Aspleniura monanthemum in 1790 : in later times 
the Messrs. Lee have imported several from New 
Zealand. Other New Zealand species have been 
brought into notice by Mr. Standish, of Bagshot, 
they having been collected in New Zealand by Mr. 
J. Watson, now a nurseryman at St. Alban’s, and 
who still continues to import. Several sent from 
Japan by Mr. Fortune have likewise been sent out 
from Mr. Standish’s nursery. To the Messrs. Low 
& Sons, of the Clapton nursery, we are indebted for 
some rare Bornean and Malayan species, collected by 
Mr. Hugh Low, jun., and amongst others for the 
remarkable Arthropteris obliterata, called Lindscea 
Loioii in the gardens, and the little curious Leucostegia 
parvula ; but more especially many rare species of 
Hymenophyllum and Trichomanes, as well as the rare 
Thyrsopteris elegans, collected by Mr. Thomas Bridges 
in Juan Fernandez. But to the Messrs. Veitch & 
Sons, of Exeter and Chelsea, among nurserymen, 
must be assigned the credit of having introduced 
the greatest number of these plants, the collectors 
employed by them in Chili and other parts of the 
American continent, in India, the Malayan continent 
c 2 
