AUGUSTUS FENDLER'SVENEZUELAN COLLECTIONSOF FERNS AND FERN ALLIES'Alan R. Smith2 and Carol A. Todzia3ABSTRACT Augustus Fendler collected over 500 collection numbers of pteridophytes in Venezuela between 1854 and 1858.These collections are noteworthy because of the large number of dispersed duplicates, rarities, and types (44 collectionnumbers thus far identified) among them. This paper presents an annotated list of Fendler's Venezuelan pteridophytecollections and a historical account of the collections, including a portrayal of Fendler's fascination with ferns. Augustus Fendler collected in northern Vene-zuela between 1854 and 1858, where he amassedimportant collections of angiosperms, ferns, fernallies, lichens, mosses, liverworts, and fungi. Al-though a general account of his Venezuelan col-lecting is given in the previous paper (Todzia, 1989),this article deals specifically with his fern collec-tions. Fendler's pteridophyte collections are note-worthy because they represent the first intensivegathering of ferns and fern allies from the CoastalCordillera of Venezuela, and because they are widelydistributed. Consequently, they have become typespecimens of a great many fern species. The fol-lowing account has been assembled with the aid ofFendler's correspondence with Daniel C. Eaton andAsa Gray, at the YU and GH archives, respec-tively. Fendler's Venezuelan fern collections as well ashis sets of flowering plants were distributed by AsaGray. As with the angiosperms, Fendler initiallyretained the first set for himself. In 1859 he re-ceived a request from Thomas Moore of the Chel-sea Botanic Garden for a set, but since Moore hadaccess to William Hooker's herbarium containingset 2, Fendler decided to sell his first set to DanielC. Eaton, who was then a student of Gray. He didthis because Eaton agreed to publish a list of thesecollections, and because the collections would thenremain in the United States, where Fendler wouldhave easy access to them. In a letter to Eaton,Fendler stated, "The only set remaining with meis set No. 1 which I used for comparison and inwhich I felt a pride and a pleasure to lay up notonly the most complete but also the finest speci-mens selected from the rest. There was a timewhen I thought I could never part with these plants.In bringing them up from their hidden places Ihave neither shun danger nor travelling expenses,and it was chiefly the search after Ferns, whichinduced me to cross the principal chain of thecordillera of the coast upon four different tracks.I therefore need not say how dear they are to me,and I never would have sold them to anyone exceptto a Botanist, who is able to make the proper useof them" [Fendler to Eaton, 24 January 1859,St. Louis]. Fendler went on to say, "For my partI have neither the necessary books, time, nor her-barium to do it. Great resources undoubtedly arenecessary to determine, which of the species arenew and which are not; for I have reason to believethat in works on Ferns, with many species, a criticaland patient overhauling is very desirable, in orderto disperse the existing confusion. I remember tohave seen in one herbarium the same species underfour different names, one of these specimens waseven disposed of under a new genus" [Fendler toEaton, 24 January 1859, St. Louis]. In total,Fendler sent Eaton close to 500 collection numbers ' We thank the archivists and librarians at the Missouri Botanical Garden, Gray Herbarium, and Yale Universityfor aiding in finding some of the sources used in this paper. We benefited from discussions with J. Ewan, R. C.Moran, J. A. Steyermark, and H. van der Werff concerning Fendler in Venezuela. R. C. Moran, C. Blaney, N.Morin, P. E. Berry, G. K. Rogers, and J. Ewan provided helpful comments on various drafts of this manuscript. Thejunior author was supported by a National Museum Act Fellowship at the Missouri Botanical Garden during thecourse of the project. 2 Department of Botany, Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, U.S.A. 'Missouri Botanical Garden, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, Missouri 63166, U.S.A. Current address: Plant ResourcesCenter, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78713, U.S.A.ANN. MISSOURI BOT. GARD. 76: 330-349. 1989.
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