20(5 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL, SOCIETY. 



cultivated rare native and foreign varieties, both under glass and 

 in the open air. In this connection Mr. Hitchings recommended, 

 for any one interested in the subject, Mr. Robinson's book — 

 "Ferns in Their Homes and Ours." The book is very interesting, 

 even if one does not intend to cultivate the ferns. Another book 

 he would recommend is an English work, "The Fern Garden," by 

 Shirley Hibberd. 



A few of our rarer ferns that have been successfully cultivated 

 are : 



Acrostichum aureum, Cheilanthes tomentosa, 



Adiantum tenerxim, Nothokena sinuata, 



Anemia Mexicana, Fellcea Jfexnosa, 



Aspidium trifoliatiim, Polypodium aureinn, 

 Asplenium ctcutarium, " PhyllitidiSy 



" ebenoides, " phimida, 



" myriophyllum, Wondwardki radicans. 



Ceratopteris thalictroides, 



Some of them vary a great deal in cultivation; the Scolopen- 

 drinm and Asplenium Filix-foemina he thought more than most 

 others, the former having one hundred named varieties. Some of 

 our own ferns vary a great deal in their native habitats, others 

 scarcely any. He has specimens of Phegopteris Dryopteris from 

 England, Ireland, Switzerland, Maine, New Hampshire, and the 

 Middlesex Fells, and he had never seen the slightest variation 

 among them except in size. But Phegopteris polypodioidcs and 

 P. hexngonoptera vary a great deal in form ; so much so that it is 

 sometimes hard to decide whether a specimen should be called 

 polypndioides or hexagonoptera ; in fact some persons think they 

 are simply variations of the same species. 



A few years ago Mr. Hitchings met Professor Eaton at the 

 Harvard Herbarium rooms, and asked him where he drew the line 

 between these two ferns. He replied: "If you find a frond that 

 measures one-sixteenth of an inch wider than it is long, call it 

 hfxagonoptera, if one-sixteenth narrower call it polypodioides." 

 [The speaker exhibited specimen fronds of each variety, which 

 clearly showed the points he had stated in regard to these 

 varieties.] But the fern that varies most is, he thought, Botry- 

 chium tematum. You may collect a hundred specimens and no 

 two of them will be alike ; Init you may be sure they are all varie- 

 ties of Botrychium ternatum. 



