11 



viz. himself and the botanist proper. This is due to the 

 fact that, up to a very recent period, all departures from the 

 normal specific form were regarded by botanists as more 

 or less monstrous and to that extent unworthy of study, and 

 so great was the consequent ignorance that the abnormal 

 or varietal types were generally termed " garden forms," 

 quite ignoring the fact that many of them were found under 

 absolutely wild conditions and were purely natural sports 

 or mutations, all the types indeed originating in this way 

 ,while the rest of the varieties were raised from these. As 

 it is a recognised fact that once a plant has " sported " its 

 spores or seeds are apt to vary in two directions, i.e. in the 

 direction of reversion or approach to the normal and in 

 that of further development of the " sport " characteristic, 

 it is clear that by selection the wild types could be 

 improved or enhanced in their varietal features, but 

 inasmuch as this faculty was implanted in the original find 

 under natural conditions, it is also clear that the eventual 

 developments were not due to culture, so that even the 

 secondary results of selections are not properly termed 

 "garden" forms, as implying that they have necessarily 

 arisen by garden influence. 



One result of this ignorance of the varietal capacity of 

 Ferns in their wild state has recently come before us in 

 the shape of several forms of Poly podium vulgave found in 

 Canada, and which came to us named as distinct species, 

 presumably because the fronds when discovered were 

 submitted to botanists who, on comparing them with 

 herbarium specimens of P. vulgave^ found them to disagree 

 more or less markedly from the type. Immediately, how- 

 ever, that we received fronds of these *' species " (?) we were 

 enabled to match the fronds extremely closely with forms 

 in our own collection, and as the only difference was in the 

 form of the frond and all the other characters agreed 

 exactly with those of the normal P. vulgave, we bad no 

 hesitation in renaming them P. vulgare variety so and so, 

 and actually returned the fronds sent together with their 



