4 
TEENS : BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 
sums of money were devoted to the payment of bota- 
nical collectors, and great exertions were made, under 
the patronage of Sir Joseph Banks, to stimulate the 
introduction of new and rare plants, by inducing the 
commanders of ships of war and East-Indiamen to 
take an interest in the subject. By these means a 
very large number of plants were actually introduced 
into the counti'y in a living state ; but the Department 
under whose charge the garden then was, took no 
steps to provide proper accommodation ; and this, 
together with the very frequent change of foremen, 
led, as a natural consequence, to the death of the 
plants. 
Taking, then, the third “ Hortus Ivewensis,” and 
excluding our indigenous species, I find that the total 
number of “ Garden Ferns ” introduced previously to 
the year 1813 amounts to as many as eighty-three. The 
merit of being the first introducer of these plants 
belongs to Mr. John Tradescant* the younger, who in 
early life made a voyage to Virginia ; and I find it 
recorded in Parkinson’s “ Theatrum Botanicum,” 
published in 1640, that upon his return from that 
country in 1628 he brought with him, amongst other 
rare plants, the Cystopteris bulbifera and Adiantum 
pedatum. These, therefore, must be regarded as the 
nucleus of our present large collections. At first 
the progress seems to have been exceedingly slow, for 
between the time of Tradescant and the close of the 
seventeenth century, only five additional species were 
introduced ; viz., Asplenium rhizopliyUum and Onoclea 
* John Tradescant had a Botanic Garden and Museum atr, 
Lambeth. 
