1 1 



from one prothallus to another and thus effect the desired 

 object. That cross fertilization does occur is abundantly 

 demonstrated by the existence of ferns in which two 

 distinct parental characters are united. The charming 

 lattice work and tassels of A. f.f. Victovae have thus, for 

 instance, been allied with the bristly character of A. f.f. 

 setigevum, and it is noteworthy that the spores of the 

 joint offspring reproduce the joint type truly and freely. 



C. T. D. 



FERN HUNTING EPISODES. 



Although Fern hunting expeditions hardly belong to the 

 very risky or adventurous category, since the ''quarry" 

 however "wild" is never aggressive, it occasionally contrives 

 its best to baffle acquisition, and doubtless every *' hunter " 

 could relate anecdotes connected with difficulties of this 

 kind. Several years ago, while out hunting in the Barn- 

 staple district, I came to a low parapeted stone bridge 

 spanning a mill leat with a very rapid stream. About 

 7 or 8 feet down, near the crown of the arch, was a very 

 pretty spiral Hartstongue growing in a chink in the masonry. 

 I could just reach it with my stick, but if I dislodged it, it 

 would inevitably fall into the water and be swept away, as 

 the stream itself was not only swift but inaccessible. 

 Happily, the day being dull, I had my umbrella with me 

 and opening this I suspended it by a string below the arch 

 and subsequently managed to tickle the fern out of its 

 retreat with the extreme point of my trowel, until it fell 

 into the " brolly " and was promptly bagged fairly intact. 



A somewhat similar case recently confronted me in the 

 Totnes district, but a far more baffling one. Here it was a 

 clump of a very pretty Polypodinm vulgare with regular 

 roundly-lobed pinnae, a form new^ to me. This w^as em- 

 bedded in a chink so low down that I could only just 

 reach it with the top of my walking stick. The river Dart 

 ran below, but even had I an umbrella, which I had not, 

 the above plan of suspension would not have fitted, since 

 the fern was growing within a few inches of a buttress 



