272 



and its varieties, the maggots may feed for a long time 

 without being discox-ered, burrowing into and tunnelling 

 the fleshy roots, and slowly undermining the whole plant 

 piecemeal. Its owner is only conscious of a continuously 

 decreasing upthrow of fronds, until a fine specimen 

 dwindles to nothing. Here, as in the other cases, 

 thorough washing out and remo\al of all dead and 

 decayed portions will assuredly reveal the maggots if they 

 are there; and these removed, recovery may be reasonably 

 expected. 



ON VARIATION GENERALLY. 



(Continued.) 



This is usually the accumulated result of many small 

 differences, but not always. Nature every now and again 

 takes, as it were, a jump, the offspring of both animals and 

 plants being sometimes extremely different from the 

 parents, new breeds and strains thus originating which 

 would otherwise never have been dreamt of, and which, it 

 may be remarked, are not always capable of long survival 

 in the struggle for existence, their eccentricity being 

 against them, and not in their favour ; or, as we have said, 

 it may be obliterated by crossing with the common form. 

 Ferns, especially, seem gifted with this power of producing 

 dissimilar offspring, since many of the more marked and 

 extraordinary forms have been found wild, and quite 

 solitary in their peculiarities, no intermediate form between 

 them and the common having rewarded the most careful 

 search, either at the time or subsequently. 



We are thus driven to the conclusion that such forms 

 are the direct offspring of one of the common b^erns in 

 whose company they were growing when found. The 

 two most striking varieties of Lady b^ern (Athyriuni Filix- 

 fcemina), Victorice and acrocladon, are examples of this; and 

 so, of course, are all the entirely barren forms, such as the 



