2/9 



form. It belongs to the intermittent type, because, 

 although the majority of the fronds are true pulcherrimum 

 in character, there are generally a small proportion of 

 normal ones produced as well as a few of a mixed character. 

 This year, for the first time in twenty-five years, the fronds 

 have been all true pulclicvvinmm. This plant shares with 

 the variegated one, and with, I believe, all other pulchcrri- 

 vmms which have been tested, the character of apospory, 

 and offspring can be raised from it without much difficulty. 

 The progeny in this as in other cases (with the exceptions 

 I have named) are, however, depauperate or at best normal, 

 and show no trace of pulcherrimum character. Apparently 

 there is something in the pulcherrimum type in angnlave, 

 which presents its transmission to offspring. The fact, 

 however, that there has been no exception may well 

 stimulate endeavour not only for the propagation of 

 existing forms, but for the production of new and improved 

 ones. Another possibility, which has not yet been fully tested, 

 remains in the fact that the degenerate offspring not 

 infrequently bear perfect spores which may give rise to 

 atavistic offspring, i.e. to ferns which may hark back to the 

 grand-parental pulcherrimum character. This experiment 

 has already been made without success, but only upon a 

 small and indecisive scale. 



In addition to the wild forms several pulcheyriniums have 

 been raised under cultivation. One or two of these have 

 already gone the way of the wild finds, i.e. they have either 

 dropped the pulchevrimniii character or died. The first one, 

 I believe, was raised by myself from mixed spores sent to 

 me by Colonel Jones, and this is still in existence. Fortu- 

 nately, or otherwise, the pidchevvinmm blood is crossed with 

 the polydactylum strain and the result is rather curious. The 

 spring fronds are of true pnlchevvimnm type with polydacty- 

 Ions tips, and are of very thin and fragile consistence ; the 

 autumnal ones regularly drop the pulcUerriinnm character to 

 a great extent, and become merely poly d act ylous or poly- 

 dactylous-pUimose. These latter are of much stouter 



