29 



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of spores, or good stock can be placed in the hands of 

 Fern Specialists, who have the knowledge, conditions and 

 interest to preserve and perpetuate them. 



Alfred Kirby. 



While agreeing in the main with Mr. Kirby's very 

 interesting notes, and particularly with his suggestions as 

 to the propagation of meritorious " finds " and their dis- 

 tribution as soon as practicable amongst the members of 

 the Society, in order to ensure their perpetuation, to which 

 end indeed our Society has mainly been formed, we think 

 it well to supplement such notes by a few remarks in their 

 connection. Variegation, for instance, has often been 

 described in these pages, and Mr. Kirby's remarks have 

 been fully confirmed as regards the rarity of persistence of 

 this under culture. Where, however, such variegation 

 occurs partially or in patches, as in the case of P. aquilma, 

 further investigation will usually shew that it pervades 

 the colony concerned and crops up here and there, though 

 the great majority of fronds may not shew it. Some 

 Hartstongues have been found with the variegation 

 occurring in stripes, and these in our own experience have 

 not only persisted in throwing up fronds so characterised, 

 but in one recorded case a specimen infected three other 

 plants grown in the same pan, showing that it is really 

 a contagious disease or weakness, caught presumably 

 through the intermingled root systems. In other plants 

 this has, we think, been amply confirmed by grafts, and 

 Mr. G. B. Wollaston, one of our most noted fern pioneers, 

 had many examples in his garden at Chiselhurst of 

 variegated plants which arose, as he stated, from seed of 

 hitherto normal ones being sown amongst variegated ones 

 of other species or even genera. So much for that point ; 

 now for the several cases of Lastrea variation to which 

 he refers. L. filix mas is well known to all fern hunters 



