i8i 



none of them showed any disposition of turning into 

 dilatatas. 



I cannot imagine that two species, which possess a large 

 number of features in respect of which they differ from 

 each other, should be transmuted the one into the 

 other according as they chanced to grow on a high or 

 low land. However, as Mr. Lowe says nothing about 

 dilatata turning into JEnmla, his transmutation difficulty 

 becomes the greater. It is ^mula alone that has this 

 property. 



My own experience with plants of ^lutilas removed 

 •from their native habitats in Kerry and Mayo to my garden 

 in Down is this : It is often chary of putting up new 

 fronds when replanted, and often dies in the first or second 

 year. This I attribute to the rough usage the plants 

 received when taken out of the ground, and to the great 

 amount of moisture lost by the plant while being carried 

 home, and perhaps not getting any water or being replanted 

 for several days. Such treatment is often unavoidable, 

 but it does not tend to encourage the plant to heal its 

 wounded stolons, roots and fronds ; they consequently 

 linger in a delicate condition for a few years and then die. 

 The remains of the dead plant, be it large or small — its 

 crown — is left in the ground, and I have over and over 

 again noticed that such dead stools become a nursery for 

 young ferns of various species. 



They are ideal spots for the spores from the neighbouring 

 Perns to commence life in. And then some day the owner 

 comes round and chances to see a L. mas. or/, foemina, or 

 a dilatata tiny frondlet growing out of the lifeless crown of 

 what had been a.nJEmula, and hey, presto ! — there you are ! 

 Emilia has transmuted into dilatata ! ! 



In Mr. Lowe's experiment the twenty plants grown in 

 pots were, I presume, kept under glass, and therefore were 

 less likely to have spores of dilatata settling on them, while 

 the five hundred that were planted in the open in his 

 garden were exposed to having spores of dilatata borne to 



