HISTORY OF INTRODUCTION' OF EXOTIC FERNS. 5 
■sensibilis from North America, the former in 1G80 and 
the latter in 1699, in which year also Adiantum reni- 
forme and Davallia Ganariensis were brought from 
Madeira, while the fifth, Bleclinum australe, was, 
according to Plukenet, who figured it in the second 
part of his “ Phytographia,” cultivated in the King’s 
garden at Hampton Court as early as the year 1671, 
when his work was published, the garden there 
containing a considerable collection of rare plants. 
During the next forty-two years no additions appear 
to have been made, excepting the Phlebodium 
aureum, which was introduced by Lord Petre at 
some time prior to 1742, the date of his death, the 
precise year being unknown. Progressing onwards, 
I do not find any more recorded until the year 1769 ; 
but between that year and the commencement of 
the following century sixty-eight species were added 
to the eight already existing in our gardens. Out of 
this large number, no less than thirty-seven were 
brought home by Pear- Admiral Bligh, in H.M.S. 
Providence, on his return, in 1793, from his second 
voyage, undertaken for the purpose of introducing 
the Bread-fruit and other useful trees into our West 
Indian colonies. And, finally, during the first few 
years of the present century, up to 1813, the date of 
the publication of the “ Hortus Kewensis,” seven 
•others were introduced. 
A summary of the foregoing shows that upwards 
of one-half of the Ferns known at the last-mentioned 
date were West Indian species, forty-four having been 
received at various times from those islands, the 
majority through Bligh’s expedition. North America 
and Madeira, with the neighbouring islands, stand 
