1863.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 509 



tribe. Of this there is a subvariety, named Pritchard's form, 

 " one of extreme elegance and beauty." " Athyrium Filix-fcR- 

 mina grandiceps, a recently- discovered variety, throws into the 

 shade all the other crested and corymbose forms of the Lady-fern, 

 beautiful as many of them are. Its habit is very dwarf; the ter- 

 minal tufts or crests of the fronds are very dense, and are fre- 

 quently several inches in breadth at their rounded tops." 



The varieties of Blechnum Spicant are now forty-four ; and if 

 their prices, as estimated by Messrs. Stansfield, — good judges 

 certainly, — be any proof of their value, they are very scarce, as 

 well as beautiful. Their prices range from 10*. Qd. to 2*. Q>d., 

 and the average is from 5*. to 7s. &d. 



Lasirea Filix-mas has now a progeny of more than fifty chil- 

 dren, some of them (many of them ?) distinguished for their 

 beauty and rarity. But of all the British Ferns, Scolopendrmm 

 vulgare still sustains its pre-eminence in being the most prolific. 

 Its varieties are now upwards of fourscore. 



The hardy exotic and British Ferns named and priced in this 

 list are above eight hundred. This is probably the largest col- 

 lection in the kingdom. 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 



Answers to Correspondents, Notes, Queries, etc. 



Earliness of the Season. — Eor some years, our daily and weekly 

 organs of intelligence have supplied their readers with proofs of the extra- 

 ordinary mildness of the months of the waning year, viz. October, Novem- 

 ber, and December. Our correspondents have supplied us with several 

 statements about the earliness of the present season, 1863. 



Our Wanington correspondent, in a letter dated the 18th February, 

 gives the following information : — " In addition to such plants as Gorse, 

 Daisy, Chickweed, Shepherd's Purse, and other species which are always 

 in flower when the weather is mild, we had in January, Lychnis d'mrna, 

 and in February, Anthriscus sylvestris, Clirysospleniwn oppositifolium, Mer- 

 curialis per'eimis in bloom, while the hedges are already getting their ver- 

 dant vernal livery. Let us hope that this precocity may not be productive 

 of subsequent premature decline." 



A few days later, the same kind correspondent sent another longer list, 

 as follows : — " In addition to our early-flowering plants already sent, I 

 may mention as now in flower, PotentUla Fragariastnmi, Stellaria media 

 in fruit, Senecio vulgaris, EriopJiorum vaginatum. Primula vulgaris, and 

 Galanllms nivalis, in a dingle near the ruins of Eock Savage Castle, Che- 

 shire. Did I mention Lamium piirpiireimi as growing under the walls of 



