As already mentioned in the introduction; this book is titled New Zealand Ferns and was created by Eric Craig, of Princes St, Auckland in 1879. It appears to have been bought by a man called Robert (who may be distantly related to me) as a gift for his sister on the 29th April 1879. The book measures approximately 32cms by 28cms and is hard backed by a dark red cloth-based cover, with the title embossed in a gold colour. Its condition is quite good considering it is 130 years old, but the spine is showing some signs of wear and there is slight smoke damage at the bottom of some pages.
The first page of the book displays the creator’s business stamp, and the rest of the book contains 29 pressed ferns of varying varieties, each with a name tag glued to the bottom of each page. I have run the names of all the ferns displayed in these pages through the New Zealand plant conservation database, and only the Todea barbara fern is deemed to be “nationally endangered”. Two other ferns are classified as “sparse”, but the remainder are all classified as non-threatened.
To view the entire collection as a slide show please click here, else please select a particular fern page from the list below by clicking on the relevant thumbnail image to be taken to that specific page. Where available a description of the fern can be accessed by clicking on the relevant ferns botanical latin name.