53 



OUR FRONTISPIECE. 



To give our members a vivid idea of the successive 

 improvement of which ferns are capable by spore selection, 

 we reproduce as our frontispiece a plate showing the first 

 four stages of evolution of the wonderful section of 

 " superbum " Lady Ferns, of which the history has been 

 given already in these pages (Vol. I., p. 269). The plate, as 

 representing drawings from parts of the original ferns 

 concerned, is itself remarkable for its fine and accurate 

 delineation. No. i represents a pinna of an ordinary 

 Lady Fern ; No. 2, one of the wild Axminster plumosum ; 

 No. 3, one of the improved Parsons type (A. f.f. plumosum 

 elegans Parsons) raised therefrom ; and No. 4, the extraordinary 

 "break," which was christened " superbum," and was des- 

 tined to be the mother of the " superbum " section generally, 

 which still remains altogether unequalled in refined beauty. 

 Spores from No. 4 yielded a considerable number of plants, 

 some far and away excelling the parent in fine cresting, 

 even to the fourth degree, i.e. with fanned out pinnulets. 

 These represented various grades, all perfect in m.ake and 

 cresting, while an equal number were entirely devoid of 

 crests, but so finely dissected and so robust as to constitute 

 a new section by themselves, of which the one named 

 A. f.f. plumosum Dvueryii stood, and still stands, head and 

 shoulders above all the plumose forms of the species, and 

 the first division of this was accepted by Queen Victoria. 

 It is now fairly well distributed, as, curiously enough, 

 despite its profuse frondage, it bears bulbils at the backs 

 of the fronds (an inheritance from AxminstevcnseitseM), which 

 reproduce it quite truly. 



