FERN BREEDING. 277 
have supplied, and are supplying, since fresh “finds” are continually 
cropping up. 
Now for a word of advocacy with our friends abroad as regards 
these British varieties as being themselves worthy of attention. Here 
and there I have heard of collections on the Continent, but they are very 
rare, and my point is this: all of the British species are natives of 
other countries, and some of them are almost ubiquitous, especially 
Pteris aquilina, which, by the way, I might have cited also as good 
material, for we have some grand varieties of it. Wherever then the 
same species are indigenous, these far more beautiful varieties are 
obviously open to cultivation. The United States, Japan, the Kuropean 
continent, would all be the richer by the acquisition of some of the best 
of our British forms, which would then not merely brighten their collec- 
tions, but at the same time provide the needful spore material for the 
crossing and hybridising which my paper is intended to advocate. 
In connection with our Colonies | may mention that in the spring of 
this year fronds and spores of a splendid, thoroughly bipinnate form of 
Biechnum Spicant were sent me by the finder, Mr. Geo. Fraser, of Ucluelet, 
British Columbia. This was found by him on Vancouver Island, and 
surpasses any variety of the type so far found here. I have sown this 
form and anticipate interesting results; for itis worthy of remark that 
whenever a fern sports in the direction of extra division it is extremely 
apt to develop this character to a greater degree in its progeny, so that 
with selective cultivation greater and greater dissection, and consequent 
beauty, may be arrived at. That the faculty of wide variation is not 
peculiar to Britain is also evidenced by the receipt from the United 
States of a fine polydactylous form of Lastrea Thelypteris, which in this 
country has afforded no “sports’”’ at all so far. I therefore strongly 
advise similar careful search elsewhere for such varietal wild forms, since 
it is invariably from them that we obtain new types and fresh material 
for both selective cultivation and the hybridisation which I advocate. 
