43 



PIONEERS OF THE FERN CULT.- 



By Dr. F. W. Stansfield. 



Dr. (now Sir) W. H. Allcmin, a London physician, who 

 early devoted attention to ferns, and made some suc- 

 cessful finds. Author of a classification of fern 

 varieties which was probably never published. 



J. M. Barnes, of Levens, Westmoreland. An enthusiastic 

 cultivator and keen judge of ferns. The most successful 

 among the early hunters in the north. Finder of 

 dozens of varieties of Lastvea montana, including several 

 of the very best. The fern authority of the Lake 

 district in his time. Died about 1890. 



T. E. Bennett, Bletchworth, Surrey, deserves mention as 

 the earliest finder of whose discovery there is explicit 

 record, having found Polyp, v. omnilacenim in 1848. 



W. C. Carbonell, of Usk, Mon. Perhaps scarcely a 

 pioneer as he was a fern pupil of Colonel Jones, but 

 he was a faithful stalwart during the dark ages of the 

 later seventies and eighties when ferns were most out 

 of fashion. He obtained much success as a raiser of 

 angulares, his divisilohes " stiptdatum " and *' longipinna- 

 timif" being among his greatest achievements. Found a 

 pretty persevvate angulave. A most genial and kindly 

 man. Bequeathed his entire collection to Kew 

 Gardens, thus founding a national collection of British 

 Fern varieties. 



A. Clapham, of Scarborough, an enthusiastic cultivator, 



hunter, and raiser of ferns, who flourished in the sixties. 



His Scolopendvium Claphamii was probably the earliest 



of the fringed cvispiims, and was for some time unique, 



though now superseded by the modem fiinhriate cvispums. 



Found a very fine form of A. tricJionianes incisum. 



* These notes on the principal pioneer British Fern hunters and 

 raisers have been kindly compiled by Dr. F. W. Stansfield from his 

 personal recollections. They have been arranged alphabetically to 

 facilitate reference, and their order does not therefore indicate in any 

 way their relative status. The names of numerous other devotees to 

 the cult have been handed down to us in connection with their dis- 

 coveries, but the list certainly embraces those whose labours have been 

 of the greatest importance in the earlier days, and whose memories 

 should therefore be helddearby all lovers of our Native Ferns. — Editor. 



