82 



scientists, and I submit that they go a very long way 

 indeed to prove my theory, that variation is altogether due 

 to something other than culture, and that however great a 

 part the environment has played in evolutionary shaping it 

 is a fallacy to suppose that "sports" can be imputed to 

 attempts as adaptation thereto. The real cause, to my 

 mind, lies deeper, and is one with that which underlies the 

 evolutionary scheme as a whole, and utterly passes the 

 comprehension of man. 



Chas. T. Druery, V.M.H., F.L.S. 



FERNS.* 



It is a somewhat curious fact, considering the immense 

 numbers of fern species in existence, and despite their 

 general demand for more homogeneous, humid and pro- 

 tected conditions than flowering plants, that they have not 

 broken up, in the course of evolution, into annuals, biennials 

 and perennials in the same manner. 



Flowering plants, as we know, come into three categories 

 — annuals, which complete their life course within the year, 

 and then die entirely, leaving the next generation to be 

 reproduced from their seed ; biennials, which rise from the 

 seed one year, during which they establish themselves, but 

 do not, as a rule, flower, doing this only in the second 

 year, when they flower and seed and then perish ; and, 

 finally, the perennials, which have a quite indeterminable 

 lease of life, running, in some cases, into many centuries, 

 as in the case of the gigantic Sequoias or Redwood conifers 

 of Colorado and elsewhere. In ferns, however, there are 

 extremely few annuals, our own native species embracing 

 only one, Gymnogvamma lepfophylla, and the vast majority 

 can live for an indefinite time. This they manage to do 

 in two ways. Those which, like the Tree-ferns, form a 



* By permission of the Journal of Horticulture. 



