14 



and soil and drive it triumphantly into the village, dumping 

 the mass into a huge hamper secured for the purpose, in 

 which it eventually reached London. Dissected, it proved 

 to have no less than 33 crowns, a number of which were 

 at once distributed far and wide among fern-loving friends. 

 Finds of such magnitude and quality are rare indeed, but 

 the chance of such discoveries always exists, especially in 

 unfrequented districts. Perhaps the most portentous Fern- 

 hunting episode in my memory is one which I escaped. 



Hunting in the vicinity of Campsie, N.B., I found close 

 to the railway a very distinct form of Lastrea dilatata 

 (L. d. stipitato laciniata) about noon, and took the train from 

 Campsie Station back to Strathblane between 12 and i. 

 About 2 a cloud-burst struck the very spot I had been 

 hunting, and washed the line away for hundreds of yards, a 

 fortunate escape indeed, and I was glad the " waterspout " 

 had not '' found " me. C. T. D. 



WILD SPORTS IN BRITISH FERNS. 



[Abstract of Lectuve delivered to the Royal Horticultural 



Society.) 



If we study the literature of plant variation and especially 

 the references thereto in technical botanical works, we 

 cannot, in default of better knowledge, fail to derive the 

 impression that what are termed " monstrosities " by some, 

 and "distinct sports" by others are in some occult way 

 due to cultural influences. The very term"garden varieties," 

 so often used in this connection, permits of no other inter- 

 pretation, especially when we consider that, until very 

 recently, the plants to which botanists applied this term were, 

 as a consequence, entirely excluded from purely botanical 

 study. They were dubbed " monstrosities," and regarded 

 in much the same way as most of us regard those terrible 

 things which may be seen at the Museum of the 

 College of Surgeons, and in similar collections. In the 

 case of most plants the varieties which we see in cultivation 

 and which form the bulk of our floral exhibitions, have 



