Handbook to the Ferns of British India, Ceylon, and the Malay Peninsula

Abstract

FOR something like the last thirty years Col. Beddome has made a special study of Indian ferns under very favourable circumstances. Holding as he did till about a year ago the post of Chief Resident Conservator of the forests of the Madras presidency, he was brought into daily contact with them in his official work, and at his home at Ootacamund he formed a large collection of them under cultivation, many of which have never reached England in a living state. About 1860 he commenced his well known series of illustrations of Indian ferns, in continuation of Wight's “Icones,” in which the ferns had been entirely neglected. His plates, like Wight's, were in quarto, uncoloured, and were mainly executed by native artists. His “Ferns of Southern India and Ceylon” contains plates of 271 species and varieties, and was issued in parts and finished in 1863. His “Ferns of British India,” which was devoted to the species not found in the southern presidency, contains 345 plates and was finished in 1868. In 1876 he published a supplementary part, containing 45 additional plates, thus raising the total number to 660, and a revised general catalogue and summary of genera and species. Now he has retired from his official position and come home to England, and the present work is the firstfruits of his leisure. It contains in a handy form a full description of all the Indian genera and species, and is illustrated by 300 uncoloured plates, reduced by means of photography from those of his larger books, one full page plate, with analytical details being given for each of the ninety-eight genera he adopts, and the others of smaller size interspersed amongst the letterpress. It is the first special book of portable size and moderate price which has been devoted to Indian ferns, and is in every way deserving of the extensive circulation it is sure to obtain.

Handbook to the Ferns of British India, Ceylon, and the Malay Peninsula.

By Col. R. H. Beddome, late Conservator of Forests, Madras. Large 8vo, 500 Pages, with 300 Illustrations. (Calcutta: Thacker and Spink; London: W. Thacker and Co., 1883.)