2 l6 



will be asked, How do these " sports " differ from the 

 common ones ? This could only be answered clearly pictori- 

 ally, for they differ in many ways. The more general 

 form, i.e. the one into which most species have sported, is 

 that of the tasselled or crested section. Normally fern 

 fronds and their side divisions terminate in points, blunt 

 or acute, as the case may be, but in a very large number 

 of species "sports" have occurred in which these points 

 are multiplied so as to form tassels, and as this capacity is 

 usually inherited and often varies in extent in the offspring, 

 selective cultivation has given us some very beautiful forms 

 indeed, derived in every case, however, from a wild sport to 

 begin with. It is, indeed, one of the peculiar features of the 

 Fern hunting we are considering that we are indebted to 

 Nature for nearly all the types of variation, the original 

 designs, so to speak, and all we can do when we find 

 marked forms is to sow them and select those which show 

 this form on still more marked lines, and so improve it. 

 Another type or class of " sports " consists of abnormally 

 divided Ferns. The common Polypody of the hedgebanks 

 and old wall tops, for instance, is only once divided, each 

 frond being like two bluntly-toothed combs set back to 

 back, but quite a number of varieties have been found wild 

 in which the teeth of these combs are themselves toothed, 

 or even divided and redivided so as to lose all resemblance 

 to the common type, while being much more beautiful. 

 Ferns also sport in many other ways, in shape of sub- 

 divisions as well as number, in habit of growth, and also 

 in size, some being tiny dwarfs, little gems of compact 

 verdure, while others are extra robust, so that with all this 

 diversity of size and make it is obvious that it is nothing 

 less than absurd to fill rockeries with some three or four 

 species, all normal and all alike, and dignify them with the 

 name of Ferneries, as is so often done. Our point, however, 

 is that wherever ferns grow wild it is well worth while to 

 carefully examine them individually as far as possible on 

 the chance of coming across one of these " sports." They 



