89 



In arranging for a Fern hunt my plan is, firstly, to study 

 conditions, and, secondly, to have a definite object in view. 

 If I wish to find a particular species, I consider the 

 conditions under which they naturally grow, whether hill, 

 or dale, moist or dry, lime or loam, seek those conditions, 

 and I have been nearly always successful in finding the 

 particular species for which I was searching. I have, I 

 find, omitted to mention my find of Cetevach officinartitn 

 ramo cvistatum, as named by you, of which I have already 

 sent you two fronds from a plant which I found on the ist 

 of this month (October, 1912) at Llantwit-Major, an old 

 world Roman village with many old walls. I found this 

 plant growing on a garden wall in the village, wedged in 

 on both sides by others of the normal type. I found no 

 others of an exceptional nature in the district. There 

 were fifteen fronds on the plant, and each and all beauti- 

 fully crested, and some ramose; the two fronds sent were 

 cut off in trying to dislodge it. 



AN AMATEUR'S NOTES. 



By the Editor. 



We are constrained to make a special note or two in 

 connection with Mr. Kirby's interesting observations, as 

 they constitute precisely the sort of matter which is best 

 fitted for the pages of the "Gazette" as an encourage- 

 ment to the amateur pure and simple, to whom the more 

 scientific aspects of Fern development appeal scarcely so 

 sympathetically. Looking back to the catching of the 

 Fern fever, many of us will doubtless recall some such 

 simple beginning when a more or less accidental find has 

 suddenly brought home to us the wonderful inventiveness 

 of Nature, and instilled into us that absolute faith in the 

 existence of " sports " which is the main factor in success- 

 ful hunting. The interpolated illustration of Scol. v. ramo 



