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confirm, I think, by completing it, the information given 

 by Mr. Charle T. Druery in his interesting "British 

 Fern Gazette." On a visit which I paid in 1894 ^o 

 Mr. Lloyd, he gave me a division of Scoloprndvium v. var. 

 Daedalea, found wild near Chapelle-Basse-Mer (Loire 

 Inferieure), and which he cultivated in his garden. In 

 this variety the frond, normal for some length from its 

 base, enlarges itself elegantly towards the summit into a 

 fan with incised lobes. Desiring, in my turn, to distribute 

 this pretty plant, I endeavoured to do so by spores, with 

 this result. The spores taken from the upper part of the 

 frond, dilated and profoundly altered, reproduced the 

 variety exactly and without exception, while, on the con- 

 trary, the spores taken from the frond where it had 

 remained normal reproduced solely the common normal 

 type. The experiment, repeated several times, has 

 always given the same results. If this observation is 

 of any interest from the genetic point of view, or only 

 from the practical horticultural one, I shall be glad that 

 I have communicated it to you. — G. Bouvet." 



The variety, which is well reproduced from a photograph 

 of a single frond, is a good sub-ramo cristatum, the fronds 

 splitting near the top into two much-divided flat fans 

 forming an even crest. Opinions here have always been 

 divided as to whether any advantage is gained by selective 

 spore sowers by collecting only from the more marked 

 parts of the frond, and since it is obviously well to be on 

 the safe side, this is practically always done, hence we have 

 no data on the above lines. Personally, I have always 

 held the opinion that, with constant abnormal varieties, the 

 variational influence is pervasive — that is, it is in the sap 

 and general structure, and is not confined to the part which 

 is most affected superficially. But the evidence here is 

 pretty strong that this is not an universal rule, and it would 

 certainly be well in such cases as this, where parts of the 

 fronds retain their normal aspects, to make duplicate sowings 



