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elongate, deltoid, tripinnate, — in its best character has 

 only one or two pairs of bulbillae seated in the axils of the 

 lowest pair of pinnae ; pinnules acute." — [Note by Mv. 

 WoUaston.) 



No British fern exceeds this in beauty, and probably 

 none has figured so prominently in exhibitions ; it is not 

 to be wondered at therefore that it should have taken more 

 than one person to find it. With reference to its dis- 

 covery Mr. WoUaston relates that himself and the late 

 Rev. Wm. Gardiner, — then Curate of Ottery St. Mary, — 

 •during a ramble in that neighbourhood, being brought 

 suddenly by a bend in the lane, face to face with it, were 

 at the same instant (it was then a large plant and in 

 true character) transfixed with astonishment, etc. Mr. 

 WoUaston was however the first to recover his presence 

 of mind and the plant will ever deservedly bear the name 

 of the first of British Fern hunters. 



The name " proliferum " was first given to a plant found 

 in S. Devon more than 30 years ago by Choule, one of 

 the Kew Gardeners. Mr. Woilaston states that an 

 impression prevailed at one time that it was exotic — 

 probably from its difference to other then known British 

 Ferns. Dr. AUchin writes that in 1852 this plant was 

 growing in the outdoor fernery at Kew, marked "P. a. 

 discretum," and afterwards " angustatum," and it was 

 from spores of this that he raised the very beautiful 

 proliferous form that bears his name, which was much 

 more proliferous than the original and perhaps more so 

 than any that has since been found or raised. Choule's 

 plant being the first to show its character was named by 

 Mr. Moore ^' pvolifevuni.'' Subsequently other proliferous 

 forms were found and named pvolifeynm — WoUastoni, Footii, 

 Crawfovdice, Holeancc, Hcnieycd, Moulel, etc. As all these 

 partook more or less the finely-cut character of the original 

 proliferum, and no other proliferous form was then known 

 it was thought by some that the proliferous character was 



