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stated that so far as sports found under wild conditions 

 are numerically concerned, our forty odd species have 

 yielded more than all the hundreds of genera and 

 thousands of species of the rest of the world combined. 

 Our term of " wonderful " is therefore seen to be well 

 justified ; since, however, it is difficult to believe that there 

 is anything in the climate, soil, or general plant environ- 

 ments of Great Britain which does not obtain elsewhere 

 in the world, and to which may be attributed an extra 

 sportive tendency in the ferns, and since, moreover, the 

 writer in his travels has been successful by assiduous 

 search in finding fern varieties elsewhere, it is to be 

 assumed that the peculiar richness of our British varietal 

 collections is mainly, if not entirely, due to the fact that 

 the search for such varieties has formed an uniquely 

 British hobby for more than half a century. A few marked 

 forms having been then discovered in our fern districts 

 of Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Cornwall, and elsewhere, 

 these attracted attention and started a cult which was 

 eventually earnestly pursued by an increasing coterie of 

 fern fanciers, with the result that their research was 

 rewarded every now and again by the acquisition of new 

 and unexpected types. 



The " cult " was still further encouraged when experi- 

 ence demonstrated that these "sports " not only as a rule 

 reproduced themselves truly and constantly from their 

 spores, but every now and again would yield typical 

 progeny on still more marked lines, so that selective 

 culture led to great improvement. 



It may give some idea of the success attending per- 

 severing search for these new forms among the common 

 types of the hedge, ditch, old wall, stone dyke or shady 

 glen, when it is recorded that one of the original 

 pioneers, Mr. J. Moly, in Dorset, found 600 distinct 

 varieties within his own district, while his near neighbour, 

 Dr. Wills, also found a large number, no two of which, 

 it may be remarked, were identical in form. Eventually 



