Boshnakian: Breeding Nephrolepis Ferns 
being a possibility. For this reason 
unless the variation is absolutely new 
it is not profitable to keep the plants 
very long and rely upon the law of 
chance. 
SPORTS ON RUNNERS 
The sports which are commercially 
utilized and which are easiest to isolate 
are those which appear on some portion 
of the runner where new rooted fronds 
are produced. When such a new type 
is discovered the entire plant with its 
runners is lifted from the bench, care 
being taken not to disturb the soil 
around the root system, and trans- 
planted to a separate bench where the 
plant can be closely and frequently 
examined. The leaves of the mother 
plant near the sported fronds are cut 
back, for in this way more light is 
allowed to reach the new fronds and 
development of new buds is thus en- 
couraged. It is a good plan not to 
sever the new fronds from the parent 
plant until the former has made about 
five leaves, for until that time the small 
fronds are nursed by the mother plant. 
At this stage the original plant may be 
removed by cutting the runner which 
connects the two plants. In order to 
produce more fronds and allow the 
rooting of runners a little soil is sifted 
over the plant to bury the crown. 
Some growers object to this method 
claiming that such a practice tends to 
produce decay at the base of the leaves, 
but after having practiced this method 
many times, and in some instances 
even after burying the crowns about an 
inch below the surface of the soil, I 
have never observed decay to take 
place; but on the contrary, in an 
experiment with N. wiridissima to see 
the effect of deep planting I found more 
leaves on plants whose crowns were set 
one-half inch below the surface of the 
soil, than on plants which were not 
planted deep. 
While the plant is developing in size 
the commercially desirable and un- 
desirable characters as well should be 
studied, for it will be a waste of time 
and of valuable space to multiply a 
plant which is commercially worthless. 
The following are the characters 
pad 
which are to be considered in determin- 
ing the merit of a new fern: 
The plant must be either an tmprove- 
ment over another form or be a class by 
itself. As we have already a®’good many 
types the chances are that the new 
sport will resemble some other variety; 
and unless it is an improvement over 
those already existing, the demand for 
it will be very slight. The improve- 
ment may not necessarily be in all 
characters, but no matter how few these 
improvements, they should be pro- 
nounced and striking enough to make 
the variety better than any already on 
the market. When N. Piersoni was 
being introduced in 1903 it reeeived 
many prizes and was in great demand 
for some six years. It is now out of 
the market because other varieties 
with similar type of fronds, such as 
Whitmani and elegantissima with their 
“compacta” and “improved”’ forms, 
show such marked improvements in 
their habits of growth. But varieties like 
superbissima and its derivatives viri- 
dissima and muscosa being unlike other 
ferns cannot be compared with other 
forms; therefore, being a class by them- 
selves, they have created a market of 
their own. 
Those ferns are most profitable which 
can be raised to a marketable size in the 
shortest period of time. This period 
varies with the rapidity of growth of the 
plant. There are three growth char- 
acters which are desirable: in the first 
place the fronds should develop rapidly; 
in the second place numerous buds 
should arise in the central area of the 
plant to give it a dense form; and 
finally it should send out runners 
freely. The last character is especially 
important from the view point of the 
wholesale florist, as the latter is con- 
cerned mainly over the rapid propaga- 
tion of the plant. Beauty and attrac- 
tiveness alone without rapidity of 
growth do not make a new variety a 
commercial possibility. There are a 
few nephrolepis ferns which receive 
prizes wherever exhibited, but due to 
the fact that they are slow growers 
their sale is limited to private collec- 
tions. On the other hand, ferns like 
bostoniensis and Scotti which originated 
