549 
877*1 Notices of Books . 
here a mention of Coombe Wood, once so dear both to the 
botanist and the entomologist, but now shut against both. The 
author generally mentions such woods and heaths as are closed 
against scientific exploration— a very useful feature in the manual, 
which may save many a student from wasting a day. Such 
restrictions, as far as uncultivated lands are concerned, are, we 
believe, peculiar to the United Kingdom. Among minor features 
of the book may be mentioned a list of the authorities consulted, 
and a list of aggregates, segregates, and synonyms. 
To all botanical students residing in the London district this 
manual will prove a useful guide. 
Ferns, British and Foreign: the History, Organography , Classi- 
fication, and Enumeration of the Species of Garden Ferns , 
with a Treatise on their Cultivation. By John Smith, 
A.L.S. New and Enlarged Edition. London : Hardwicke 
and Bogue. 
No class of plants, probably, is for the present in such general 
favour as the ferns, and a work like the one before us must con- 
sequently find appreciative readers outside the circle of professed 
botanists. The author is one who has laboured long and zealously 
in the promotion of scientific horticulture. From 1822 down to 
1864 he was curator of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, 
where he devoted especial attention to this interesting group, 
and where the number of cultivated species was largely 
increased by his exertions. 
In this Mr. Smith gives a history of the introduction of exotic 
ferns ; an explanation of the terms used in describing them ; an 
account of the principles on which they are classified, with the 
generic characters and an enumeration of cultivated species. 
The cultivation of ferns — whether in pots, in the open ground, 
in ferneries suited for tropical or sub-tropical species, or in 
Wardian cases — is described at some length, and in a manner 
which will be decidedly useful to amateurs, now so numerous 
and so zealous. Here, however, we cannot refrain from quoting 
with approval a remark of the author’s on the present fern- 
mania : — •“ However laudable and agreeable fern-growing may 
be, yet it is to be regretted that it leads to the extinction of some 
of our rarest native species. Even the more common are be- 
coming scarce in localities within easy reach, great quantities 
being yearly consigned to the London market.” The misfortune 
is that many fern cultivators allow their pets to die yearly, and 
purchase a fresh stock on the approach of spring. The ex- 
tinction of some species in certain localities we have ourselves 
observed and regretted. Thus we know of several dells in which 
Polypodium dryopteris formerly grew in some abundance, but 
