54 



characteristic plants/'' We, therefore, see that the subject 

 of our remarks has many points of interest besides its 

 intrinsic beauty to recommend it, and, to our mind, by no 

 means the least of these is its longevity, since there are few 

 pot plants which wnll last their owner's lifetime without 

 depreciation, as will the '' King of the Male Ferns" when 

 once properly established as a Tree Fern. 



Charles T. Druery, F.L.S., V.M.H. 



THE NAMING OF FERN VARIETIES. 



We do not propose in this note to enter into the vexed 

 question of nomenclature generally, which, in point of fact, 

 is no such bugbear to those within the cult as it appears to 

 be to outsiders, but to give a few suggestions as to the 

 distinctive naming of crested forms. The phenomenon of 

 cresting is fairly general among Ferns, and is evidenced in 

 all grades from a mere forking of the terminal points to 

 such a general branching of the frond that the normal flat 

 growth is entirely eliminated, and a mossy bunch results, 

 which may render similarly affected varieties of quite 

 different species all but indistinguishable from each other. 

 We see this, for instance, in the Lady Fern and the 

 Havtstongue, A. f.f. unco- glomevat urn and S. v. Kelwayii 

 dcns2im, both forming dense and moss-like masses, and 

 hence very similar in appearance. Much confusion, 

 however, exists in the naming of the simpler crested 

 forms as regards the extent of tasselled division and its 



''■' In this respect L. p. vi. percy'istata apospora, as it has been named, is 

 botanically one of the most remarkable ferns we know of, since in it 

 are combined the two phenomena of "apospory," or production of 

 prothalU on the fronds, and " apogamy," or production of young 

 plants without a fertilization process, these originating as simple buds. 

 This involves such an economy of vigour that tips of pinnas laid down 

 and kept close have yielded plants in a week or two, and as the fern 

 prothalli bud out and ramify into others, a single tip is capable of filling 

 a pot with prothalli and yielding an indefinite number of plants. Un- 

 fortunately, in these plants there is a great lack of constitutional vigour, 

 and they rarely assume any great size. — C.T.D. 



