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AN AMATEUR'S NOTES AND 



OBSERVATIONS TO AMATEURS. 



By Alfred Kirby. 



In my knowledge of Ferns, I am in my infancy. As an 

 admirer of the beautiful in Nature, I am considerably 

 older. From my earliest boyhood, ferns had a singular 

 fascination for me, because they are built on lines of 

 beauty. Ten years ago I could enumerate on the fingers 

 of one hand the common appellations of all the British 

 Ferns I knew, viz. the Bracken, the Male Fern, the Lady 

 Fern, and the Hartstongue. 



The first experience of cultivated British Ferns I 

 obtained from buying and growing a young plant, which 

 I now know to be P. ang. pvolifevum. My accommo- 

 dation, like my knowledge, was very limited, viz. two 

 windows, of south-east and north-east aspects. I was 

 very successful in growing this plant, and in time it 

 produced large plumose fronds like ostrich feathers. This 

 was encouraging. 



About this time I became acquainted with an old man, 

 an ex-gardener, who cultivated a few British Ferns as a 

 hobby and of which he was very proud. Conversing with 

 him one day, he told me that he had a natural wild find 

 of his own. He showed me some specimens, and I was 

 surprised at the great variations from the normal. The 

 thought then occurred to me, that if this man could 

 find new varieties, why not I ? I then had a very severe 

 attack of Fern fever, with very high temperature, so on 

 every available opportunity I was on the hunt. The 

 following year, early in March, I was fortunate enough 

 to come across my first wild find. The plant was small 

 and withered, having only about three short, crumpled 

 fronds (S. v. ramo. grajidiceps). 



The conditions under which it grew were anything but 

 ideal ; a raised bank, on a country roadside. The soil was 



