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grandiceps shows that Mr. Kirby was peculiarly fortunate in 

 his first " find," and we can well conceive how such an 

 acquisition infected him with the disease in question and 

 inspired the "wanderings," corporeal rather than mental, 

 which are a diagnostic feature of that kind of fever. The 

 further fact that a large and characteristic family resulted 

 from a sowing of the spores of that find naturally aggravated 

 the " high temperature " to which he alludes. 



Regarding the cause of variation, this has long been 

 sought for by our most eminent scientists, and many 

 theories have been brought forward only, however, to prove 

 fallacious under the test of further experience. In our 

 lecture on this point, concluded in this issue, this point is 

 dealt with fairly fully and practically ; all we can say at 

 the present time regarding their origin amounts to Topsy's 

 opinion of hers, viz. " Specks I growed," and we fear that 

 we are hardly likely to get nearer to the " cause " than we 

 shall to that of the origin of life itself, so diverse are the 

 circumstances in which "sports" occur. We are, how- 

 ever, inclined to agree with Mr. Kirby that we are more 

 likely to find "sports" under "hard and uncongenial 

 conditions " than under very favourable ones, but this, as 

 we have said elsewhere, may only mean that under such 

 conditions the "sport" is more easily detected for one 

 thing, while as the majority of " sports" tend to be dwarfed 

 to some extent by their structural materials being used in 

 other directions, such as crests, extra dissection, etc., such 

 sports originating among very robust normals would pro- 

 bably be crowded out of existence in the young stage, and 

 be rendered extremely difficult to find if they managed to 

 survive. Anyone who has waded or pushed a way through 

 ferny jungles waist or even shoulder high will easily appre- 

 ciate this fact. The inconstancy or only temporary sporting 

 of Ferns is also noticed by Mr, Kirby. The fronds of 

 Cystoptevis fvagilis sent us were all irregularly ramose, but 

 eventually the plant only produced normal ones. In con- 

 nection with this species, we have a plant of C. /. semper- 



