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tramping along the lanes and hedgerows of the south. 

 The normal ferns, when in wild health and luxuriance, 

 are so beautiful that a day is well spent if one sees nothing 

 else. There is always, however, the possibility of coming 

 across a "good thing," and the rarity of a valuable find 

 makes the prize all the more appreciated when it is found. 

 It is only the man who has hunted in vain for days or 

 weeks who can really understand the joy of success. The 

 wild find is the hunter's very own ; it comes straight from 

 the womb of Nature, and owes nothing to the work of any 

 previous hunter or raiser. Even though, as frequently 

 happens now, the find may have been equalled or sur- 

 passed by previous finds, it has an individuality of its own 

 and is entitled to rank as an independent entity. Let it 

 not be imagined that I wish to disparage or despise the 

 work of the raiser of new ferns. Far from it. We owe 

 very much to the work of fern raisers, both amateur and 

 professional, and many, if not most, of our most beautiful 

 varieties have been raised by cultivators. But, after all, 

 the raiser can only build upon the foundation laid by the 

 hunter. No cultivator would think of sowing the spores 

 of a normal form for the sole purpose of obtaining a new 

 variety. The game would not be worth the candle. 

 Nature, however, is perpetually doing the work on a large 

 scale, and the result of her sowings are there ready to the 

 hand of him who has the patience and the time to find the 

 treasures. 



Another question sometimes asked is, "Why do you 

 make such a fuss about having a bit of the original find 

 rather than a seedling from it ? " There are doubtless 

 many ferns which come so true from spores that a seedling 

 is quite undistinguishable from the original. In these cases 

 the preference for the original is merely a sentimental one. 

 It is, nevertheless, a force to be reckoned with, and is 

 comparable to the demand (often at high prices) for copies 

 of the first edition of a book. 



