292 
FERNS : BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 
logue of 185 7, were not in the Kew collection in 1864, 
viz., Gymnogramma rutcefolia, Hemionites pedata, 
Notholcena lanuginosa, Myriopteris vestita, Onychium 
auratum, Blechnum triangulare, Nephrolepis undulata, 
Lindscea guianensis, Schizoloma ensifolia, Thyrsopteris 
elegans, BotrycMum virginicum. 
Several special causes which lead to the loss of 
species have already been noticed. I did not intend 
to advert to them again ; but the recent death of 
Sir W. J. Hooker * necessitates me to repeat what I 
have stated at pages 42 and 43, where, in speaking 
of my having resigned the charge of the Kew collec- 
tion, I said that “ happily it remains under the 
direction of Sir W. J. Hooker.” These words will 
now apply to Dr. Hooker, the present Director, whose 
name is sufficient in itself to sustain the scientific 
reputation of Kew. Let us hope that the general 
collection of living plants of the Botanic Garden, now 
famous for more than a century, f will not suffer by 
the modern taste for showy flowers, and what is 
now fashionably called “ foliage plants.” 
* Died August 12th, 1865. 
f Number of species at Kew in 1768 . . . . 3,400 
Ditto 1786 .. .. 5,500 
Ditto 1813 .. .. 9,800 
Since the latter date no general catalogue has been pub- 
lished, and no public record kept of the plants introduced 
or lost. 
