1 82 Baker.— A Summary of the new Ferns 
specific difference adopted in Synopsis Filicum , as forms or 
varieties. Of the distinctness of published novelties of which I 
have not been able to see specimens, it is almost impossible 
to judge, but I have indicated the position they would occupy 
in the Synopsis as well as I could from the published descrip- 
tions. In a few cases fresh material that has been received 
shows that species that are passed over in the book for want of 
knowledge ought to be maintained, or that species kept up as 
distinct in the book ought to be combined. 
Besides innumerable papers in journals, in the proceedings 
and transactions of societies and in local floras that include 
ferns (which I need not attempt to enumerate, as they will appear 
in the citations), the two principal books that concern our 
subject that have appeared since 1874 are Beddome’s most 
useful Handbook of the Ferns of British India, published at 
Calcutta in 1881, and Father Sodiro-s e Recensio Cryptogama- 
rum Vascularium Provinciae Qtiitensis ’ published at Quito in 
1883. The sixteenth century of Hooker’s leones is devoted 
entirely to Ferns. The principal collections which contain 
new species have been made in Madagascar by Pool, Miss 
Gilpin, Kitching, Baron, Humblot, Hildebrandt and Last ; in 
China by Henry, Faber, Ford, Hancock, Maries and Delavay ; 
in Perak by Scortechini ; in Tonquin by Balansa ; in the Malay 
archipelago by Beccari, Burbidge and Dr. Hose (Bishop of 
Singapore and Sarawak) ; in New Guinea by Beccari and Sir 
William Macgregor ; in New Caledonia by Vieillard and 
Balansa ; in Polynesia by Moseley (Challenger expedition), 
Horne, Sir J. B. Thurston and the Rev. R. B. Comins ; in the 
Western United States by various collectors ; in Mexico by 
Pringle, Parry and Palmer; in Costa Rica by Harrison and 
Cooper; in the West Indies byjenman, Hart, Nock, Sherring 
and Fendler ; on the Roraima expedition by im Thurn ; 
in New Granada by Kalbreyer ; in Ecuador by Father Sodiro ; 
and in Brazil by Glaziou. In this enumeration the species 
are numbered as in the Synopsis Filicum. Novelties are 
indicated by an asterisk attached to the numbers of the 
species to which they are most nearly allied. 
