20I 



Dr. Wills', who at once acquired it, and by reason of its 

 peculiarly unique and beautiful character named it ** pul- 

 cherrimum." It differed from the normal form of the 

 species by its finer make and general slenderness, coupled 

 with extremely graceful terminals to the fronds, where the 

 lateral pinnae curve inwards and overlap each other as 

 they diminish to a long slender tip. The tips, too, both 

 of the frond and the pinnae, evince a slight tendency to 

 expansion. The plant in Dr. Wills' hands proved to be 

 of a very robust character, but produced no spores or at 

 any rate nothing which could be recognised as spore-heaps 

 proper. It thus acquired the reputation of being perfectly 

 sterile, but fortunately it proved to be fairly liberal in the 

 production of lateral offsets of a vigorous character, so that 

 in time divisions found their w^ay to all collections of note. 

 Mr. G. B. WoUaston, of Chislehurst, one of the foremost 

 pioneers of the British Fern cult, was one of the first 

 recipients, and it was through him that some time in the 

 eighties the writer obtained a specimen. This in its turn 

 throve robustly and produced numerous offsets, which were 

 separated, propagated from, and distributed to a favoured 

 few. One of these divisions was given to Mr. C. B. 

 Green, of Acton, and being planted in the soil under 

 glass in a few years became a magnificent specimen, so 

 fine indeed that when seen by Dr. Stansfield and the 

 writer on the occasion of a visit it was subjected to 

 extra careful scrutiny for possible spores, particularly 

 as experience had shewn that with some reputedly 

 barren Ferns of extra plumose types, although obvious 

 spore heaps were not visible to the naked eye, a lens 

 revealed that isolated sporangia or spore pods occurred, 

 resembling tiny black dots, and that these contained 

 perfect spores capable of yielding plants. It was 

 precisely from such that the writer raised some thirteen 

 plants from the unique P. ang. div. pi. Baldwinii, the finest 

 of the Jones and Fox plumosums, from the only specimen 



