199 



LIST OF OFFICERS. 



President : Mr. A. Cowan, Penicuick, 



Vice-Presidents. 



Dr. F. W. Stansfield, Reading. Mr. J. J. Smithies, Kendal. 



Mr. C. T. Druery, Acton, London. Mr. W. H. Phillips, Belfast. 



Mr. W. B. Boyd, Melrose. 



Hon. Secretary : Mr. Chas. T. Druery, v.m.h,, f.l.s. 



Treasurer: Mr. W. B. Cranfield, Enfield Chase. 



Auditor : Mr. J. J. Smithies. 



Committee : 



Mr. T. Bolton, Warton. Mr. T. G. H. Eley, Furness Abbey. 

 ,, J. J. Smithies, Kendal. ,, W. Bell, Furness Abbey. 



,, R. Whiteside, Lancaster. ,, G. Whit well, Kendal. 



,, W. E. Farrer, Lancaster. ,, W. Wilson, Kendal. 



Together with the President and Vice-Presidents as members ex officio. 



THE LADY FERN {continued). 

 The varieties of the Lady Fern, in the main, divide 

 themselves into two classes, as in' other ferns, viz. the 

 tasselled and the extra feathery ones, but added to these 

 characters we have others forming the unique combina- 

 tions we have referred to. The Victoria Lady Fern 

 \(A.ff. Victovia) stands at the head of this section, and yet 

 was found by the side of a country lane in Scotland in all 

 its curious development. Incidentally we may mention 

 here that fern varieties can be crossed together through 

 their spores, in which way some curious combinations 

 have, so to speak, been made by man, but this Victoria 

 Lady Fern is no such product. Nature alone had a hand 

 in it, and man moreover so far has failed to better it by 

 selection. In this fern the fronds are very long and 

 narrow, the pinnae or side divisions are also long and 

 slender, and, like the frond tip, are divided at the end into 

 slender many-stranded pendulous tassels. The marvel, 

 however, comes in in the fact that these side divisions are not 

 set on singly at nearly right angles to the stalk, as in most 

 ferns, but are set on in pairs at right angles to each other, 

 and as each pair has its fellow pair on the opposite side of 

 the midrib, the two form a cross, and of course the two 



