PUEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. is 
descriptions of 2,228 species. A second edition of 
this work was published in 1874, with an Appendix, 
which contains the descriptions of 488 new species ; 
thus making the total number of known ferns, as 
identified by the Kew Herbarium, to amount to 2,646. 
In this work Mr. Baker has, however, made consider- 
able alterations in the nomenclature and synonyme, 
as given in the “ Species Filicum,” which adds addi- 
tional testimony to what I have stated at page 56. 
The propriety of making such, whether right or 
wrong, is not necessary for me to comment on here,* 
for to do so would lead to this Appendix being much 
enlarged, and only burden genera and species with 
additional synonyms, which, for the sake of amateur 
cultivators of Ferns, I deem it prudent to avoid as 
much as possible ; it is only in a few special cases 
that I have thought it necessary to change or add 
synonyms to names in the original enumeratiou. 
I felt desirous to state the name by whom each 
individual species was introduced, but I found this to 
be a difficult task, and therefore deem it sufficient to 
state, that the principal introducers were the following 
nurserymen: — Messrs. Backhouse, York ; Bull, King’s 
Road, Chelsea ; Henderson, Pine-apple Place, Edg- 
ware Road; Jackson, Kingston; Standish, Ascot; 
Stansfield, Todmorden ; Yeitch, King’s Road, Chelsea; 
and Williams, Holloway. 
* For full particulars on this point see my “ Historia Filicum,” 
a work of 429 pages, with 29 lithographic plates, published by 
Macmillan & Co., 1875. 
