they are dumped into the soil regardless of aspect, burning 

 sun or windy conditions, so that if they do not perish by 

 slow degrees, they can never develop the beauty they 

 displayed in their normal habitat. In short, it is safe to 

 say that the great bulk of ferns so removed are simply 

 destroyed. Follow now the fern hunter proper. He finds 

 a good variety, the roots of which after careful removal he 

 wraps in wet moss, packing the fronds also carefully to 

 prevent damage. Arrived home, if his find be a new one, 

 his first care is to collect its spores and make a sowing^ 

 and the probability is that in a year or two he will have 

 provided all his fern-loving friends with specimens for 

 exchange ot otherwise, thus multiplying and perpetuating 

 instead of destroying. More than this, since the spores of 

 good varieties are apt to yield not only the parental type, 

 but also improvements in same, he may eventually be the 

 proud owner of a new race or section of beautiful ferns 

 which would never have seen the light had the original 

 " find " been overlooked. 



Recurring now to the " unique" character of the British 

 Fern cult, it is truly unique in the sense that there is no 

 other race of w^ild plants which is capable of providing all 

 the material for splendid collections exclusively from home 

 mateviaL Take any other floral hobby we will, and when 

 we inquire into the history of a collection, we shall 



inevitably find exotic or foreign influence to figure largely 

 in it, both as regards origin of the plants concerned and 

 also their raisers ; but with a few exceptions, which can be 

 counted on the fingers, consisting of varieties of such 

 species as are indigenous in other countries as well as 

 Britain and have been introduced by fern-loving travellers, 

 the British Fern cult is a purely national one, devoted to 

 native plants all found wild in our woods, lanes and glens 

 in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and the Channel 

 Islands, or derived from such wild parents by selection of 

 their progeny. Another point in their favour is that being 

 native plants, they are all hardy, with the exception of the 

 maidenhair and the sea spleenwort, which are confined to 



