28o 



texture and serve to build up a new crown for the 

 following year. Had it not been for this polydactyhim 

 admixture I strongly suspect that the plant would ere this 

 have perished from inanition. The comparatively coarse 

 poly dactyl 11 }n type gives a robustness to the constitution, 

 which is lacking in the high-bred pulchevrimuin form. More 

 recently a very promising seedling oi pulcherviynum type has 

 been raised by my brother, Mr. H. Stansfield. A very 

 young frond of this was figured last year in the " Gazette." 

 This year (191 1) it has developed the pulchevnmum character 

 in a more pronounced form and still continue to promise 

 well. Until it reaches the adult state, however, it cannot 

 be assumed that the character will be permanent. These 

 things are upon the knees of the gods. 



Fern-hunters, wake up ! It is more than twenty years 

 since 3. pnlchevvimum was found wild. The womb of Nature 

 is inexhaustible, and the seventeenth find may surpass any 

 of its predecessors. 



F. W. Stansfield. 



Reading, Novemhev i^tli^ 1911. 



NEW FERNS. 



Miss Hawkins, of Kingston-in-Fields, near Derby, has 



sent me a frond of a very fine Cvispnm Scolopendvium found 



this year by her brother Mr. Richard Hawkins, near Mid- 



dleton, CO. Cork. It is very near to crispum gyande, Wills,' 



from which it differs in being slightly less deeply undulate, 



and in having prominent veins on the upper surface, which 



give an appearance of " tooling," such as is seen in 5. crispinn 



diversifrons, Jones. The discoverer, who is a brother of our 



member, the Rev. E. H. Hawkins, is to be congratulated 



upon a first-rate find. I suggest the nan.e 5. v. crispum 



grandcy Hawkins. 



F. W. Stansfield. 



