CLASSIFICATION OF FERNS. 29 



Some of these cultivated varieties are so different 

 from their progenitors, that even the genus to 

 which they are supposed to belong is with difficulty 

 suspected. It is as if we were to encourage and 

 produce a quantity of malformed dogs and cats, 

 or children it may be, and revel in their hideous 

 shapes and disguised forms. The writer may be 

 influenced by prejudice against this sort of cul- 

 ture ; but it seems to him like trifling with the 

 good and beautiful gifts which Nature has be- 

 stowed. 



There may be hybrids among ferns. Asplenium 

 ebenoides is supposed by some authors to be one. 

 If it is, it is the result of the prothallus of one 

 species being fertilized by the antherozoids of 

 another species, or even genus. This is not 

 impossible ; as it is shown that sometimes a pro- 

 thallus cannot be fertilized within itself, and there- 

 fore it must be that the antherozoids reach it from 

 another. Should they come from the prothallus 

 of another species, a hybrid would be the conse- 

 quence ; if from that of the same species, it would 

 be an example of cross-fertilization only, and in- 

 teresting to Mr. Darwin. 



If this chapter has not produced utter confusion 

 in the reader's mind, it may have sufficiently indi- 

 cated the confusion and discord in botanical classi- 

 fication ; so that it may be understood that the 

 name of a fern, as indicating its rank and place, is 



