192 NOTE ON A RARE BRITISH FERN. [SEss. LXX. 
NOTE ON A Rare BRITISH FERN, CYSTOPTERIS FRAGILIS, 
Var. SEMPERVIRENS. By WILLIAM YOUNG. 
I wish to bring before the Society a fern which hitherto 
seems to have been considered a doubtful native. This plant 
was found by me in Corrie Ceann-mor, South Aberdeenshire, 
in July 1904. At the time I was not aware of what I was 
gathering except that it looked a strong plant of the type 
Cystopteris fragilis, of which indeed I gathered several that 
same day. They were all planted together in a cold frame. 
In a short time all sent up new fronds, the old ones having 
been all broken off in my vasculum. While all the fronds 
of the others died down with the first frosts in the late 
autumn, the fronds on this plant remained green throughout 
the winter. Last summer all the plants grew most luxuri- 
antly, this plant markedly so. Again, it showed its evergreen 
character by withstanding the frosts of early winter. No 
doubt there is shelter from wind, rain, and hoar-frost in 
the frame; but frost does penetrate, for the surface of the 
soil has been repeatedly frozen. It stood alone among a 
thicket of withered fronds of the ordinary plants. I am 
sorry, the season being now so far advanced, there is only 
one very dilapidated frond remaining to show you. However, 
this dried and mounted frond, cut on 8th December last, and 
sent to Mr. Somerville, Glasgow, for his opinion, will show 
you what a fine, strong-growing plant it is. Itis considerably 
larger than it was when growing in its native habitat. 
Mr. Somerville sent the frond to Mr. Druery, to whom at 
his request I, in January last, sent all the best fronds 
remaining. . 
In a letter to Mr. Somerville, Mr. Druery said: “I cannot 
say whether this is C. sempervirens, but I doubt it. It is, 
however, a very large form apparently. I have never met 
with C. fragilis anything like the size. If it be really not 
deciduous, I should name it C. f. sempervirens, and perhaps 
gigas, unless the size is due to specially favourable local 
conditions. I have a plant of presumed sempervirens given 
me years ago by Colonel Innes, but that is a crested form.” 
In a note in the “ Gardeners’ Chronicle” of 10th February, 
Mr. Druery says: “The fronds appear to answer to the 
