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gvacillhnum Dvtiery and P. ac, p. plumosum Green. The 

 fronds shown differed widely from both of these types, 

 being very foHose, and the remarkable feature of the 

 exhibits consisted in the facts stated by Mr. Edwards that 

 only this form appeared in his batch of youngsters, raised 

 be it remembered, from a division of the same plant, 

 F. acul. pulcherriiuuiii, which yields the other two strains in 

 question, so that the three strains had practically one and 

 the same identical parent. Mr. Druery and Mr. Green, 

 the joint raisers of the two first sections, had identical 

 results, viz. about 30 per cent, of gracillimum and one 

 plumosum, the rest, with very few exceptions, being true 

 pulcherrimums, and the few exceptions reversions more or 

 less to the normal, but on angulare lines rather than 

 aculeatum. Why, therefore, the spores on Mr. Edwards' 

 division (pinnae of which he exhibited to show that the 

 spores were borne on isolated sporanga in precisely 

 the same way as with the previous sowings) should 

 produce a quite different batch, containing none of the 

 other types, forms an insoluble enigma for the teratologist. 

 Mr. Edwards reports that the first batch raised consisted 

 of six plants only — three of the new foliose type, the other 

 three normal, but more like angulare than aculeatum. 

 This agrees with the reversions noticed in both Mr. Green's 

 and the Editor's crops. The parental (pulcherrimum) type 

 did not appear at all. The second sowing yielded about 

 30 plants, of which eight or nine are what we may term 

 Edwards' " foliosums," no parental forms, and the rest 

 reversions on the same lines as described. The third 

 sowing has yet to show its results. The nett result so far 

 is very remarkably different from the original one, since 

 while neither pulcherrimum itself nor a single plant of the 

 gracillimum section appeared, those which did declare a 

 difference were of another type altogether, though equally 

 beautiful, while the percentage of reversions was much 

 greater. 



B 



