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winii," which is by far .the finest cut and most delicate of 

 the Jones and Fox section, is reported by Mr. Lowe to 

 have arisen from a bulbil of *' densum," a point which is to 

 some extent confirmed by the fact that the writer, who was 

 fortunate enough to find a few spores on Baldwinii which 

 were sown with J\lr. Lowe's sanction, raised thirteen 

 plants, all of which, save one, were counterparts of 

 •* densum," though in some cases rather more finely divided 

 and apparently of better constitution. The exception, 

 curiously enough, cannot be distinguished from the wild 

 find known as plninosnni Pateyii, which has flat papery, foliose 

 fronds of the wild *' plumosum " type. 



We may now turn to the " superbum " strain of Lady 

 Ferns of " Axminsterense " origin, which in some respects 

 stands alone as regards diversity of type. The wild 

 Axminster plumosum was propagated for many years 

 through its spores, which produced the parental plumose 

 form. Then a more dissected form appeared, which was 

 named plumosum elegans Parsons. No trace of cresting 

 appeared in either of these, nor, so far as we know, in any 

 of their progeny. Axminsterense^ like others of the plumose 

 Lady Ferns, bears bulbils associated with the sporeheaps, 

 and the writer having found such on A.f.f. pi. divaricatum — a 

 quite separate wild find — a pinna of " elegans " was sent to 

 him by Mr. Fitt to show that it, too, did the same. 

 Attracted by the beauty of the pinna, the writer sowed 

 some spores, with the extraordinary result that only two of 

 the offspring were "elegans," while all the rest — about 

 100 — were well crested as well as plumose. All but two 

 of these, however, showed defects — missing or shortened 

 pinnae and pinnules — and were consequently rejected. Of 

 the two in question one was much finer than the other, 

 being heavily and symmetrically tasselled at all terminals. 

 This was at once named ''superbum." This soon bore a 

 few spores, which were immediately sown, with the 

 astounding result that the numerous offspring broke into 

 two distinct sections — crested and uncrested — all far and 



