204 



original *' reversions " were sown, but only yielded a batch 

 of coarse and more or less normal plants of aculeatoid 

 type. A curious and unusual feature of the "gracillimum " 

 section is that while in the parent the pinnules, are, as on 

 the normal plant, widest at the base of the pinna and tapering 

 gradually to the tip, the reverse is the case in "gracillimum," 

 the long slender subdivisions becoming longer and longer 

 towards the tip, so long indeed that the parental half-inch 

 length extends to over two inches in many cases, imparting 

 by their weight a peculiarly beautiful pendulous character 

 to the fronds. 



Chas. T. Druery, V.M.H., F.L.S. 



LASTREA MONTANA CRISTATA-GRACILE 



DRUERY. 



Amongst the now numerous recollections pigeon-holed in 

 my brain in connection with wild Fern finds, the circum- 

 stances attending the discovery of this beautiful variety are 

 sufficiently noteworthy, I think, to possess an interest for 

 my fellow enthusiasts, and therefore I venture to give them 

 in some detail. In the summer of 1888 I determined, as 

 usual under the impulse of the Fern fever, which had then 

 become chronic, to spend my week or two of vacation in 

 some region as out of the way as possible, where Ferns 

 were plentiful and the chances of a find increased by the 

 remoteness of the locality from those vandalistic visitors 

 and villagers who do their best, or rather worst, in so many 

 places to deplete them of their ferny charms. After some 

 study of the map I chose a little village called Sticklepath, 

 a few miles from Okehampton and on the very margin of 

 Dartmoor. We, I and my wife, reached there on the 

 Saturday and found comfortable though rustic quarters in 

 a cottage in the village, everything, as is usual in Devon, 

 being neat and clean, and the only objection in this 



