26; 



Pull a crown to pieces in the spring and you will have to 

 wait and watch a long time before growth recommences. 

 Perform this operation in September or October and you 

 will gain a season. Little water will be required during 

 winter, but when the dog-days arrive, and the pots are 

 full of roots, saucers should be brought out to help to 

 keep the plants moist and cool. That I believe is a 

 desideratum for, say, the phuuoso-divisolohums. But, enough ; 

 although I have not said half as much as I could have 

 commanded. Polystichiims are fascinating plants, and I do 

 not wonder that those who have been "badly bitten" 

 require a Pasteur to relieve them. 



In conclusion, I would urge that the Fernery should be 

 kept for Ferns. Eschew flowering plants. Let the Ferns 

 be the flowers: but if Mrs. Fern-lover will also have 

 Phanerogams, build her another structure, so that you may 

 pursue your pteridological studies with unalloyed content. 



C. B. Green. 



NEW FERN STRAINS. 



When we study the history of Fern evolution, so far 

 as this relates to the development of varietal forms of a 

 particularly marked character from comparatively inferior 

 varieties found wild, we must speedily appreciate that 

 three particular examples stand out more conspicuously 

 from the rest. The three wild varieties concerned are 

 Athyviiim filix foemina plnmosnm Axminstevense, found by 

 Mr. J. Trott, in i860, near Axminster ; Polystichnm 

 angtdave decompositum splendens, found by i\Ir. Moly, 1875, 

 in South Devon ; and P. acideatmn pulchevyumiin, found in 

 1876 in a hedge in Dorset by a farm labourer named 

 Beavis, and given to Dr. Wills, who resided close to the 

 locality of the find. It is only by comparison with their 

 really wonderful offspring that we have termed these 

 "inferior " varieties, since their departure from the normal 

 type was marked enough, the Athyvmni being a fine 



