350 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MAY 
their collections, but also with material well worthy scientific attention. 
Thanks to some short notes sent to the Fern Bulletin, | have received 
already fronds of a crested Athyrium found by a lady, and plants of 
Denstaedtia punctilobula cristataand Phegopteris hexagonoptera truncata, 
the latter found by Mr. W. R. Maxon on the Potomac, which have 
originated in the United States as wild sports, a proof that such sports 
exist. At the same time, however, I note that much stress is laid upon 
doubtful subvarieties, which a wider knowledge of marked ones would 
probably minimize considerably. In my own fern hunting expeditions 
I invariably come across subvarieties in which the cutting is more or 
less modified ; but with the abundance of really marked types in mind, 
these are simply noted and left. As exemplifying this abundance the 
figures from Mr. G. I. Lowe’s British Ferns, a descriptive list published 
in 1891, may be appropriately quoted. 
No. of vars 
Pteris aquilina - - - a ‘ ei 17 
Adiantum capillus-Veneris - - - - - 34 
Asplenium adiantum nigrum : - - - 16 
trichomanes - - é z é 27 
maximum~— - : : - = E 28 
Athyrium filix-foemina ss : = Z ‘ : 313 
Scolopendrium vulgare - - : . : 450 
Polystichum aculeatum ~— - - : 4 : 34 
angulare” - - $ “ . F 304 
Lastrea filix-mas - - : * - 5 54 
pseudo-mas - - H : - 42 
propinqua s us as 4 - 28 
montana (reeptene) - ‘ - - 77 
dilatata and others - - - = 57 
Polypodium vulgare - _ : x 74 
Other varieties of sundry species - - - . 214 
Total - x Z is bi 1859 
Upon analysis it is found that 1119 of these were wild finds, without 
reckoning additional independent finds of forms too similar to dif- 
ferentiate. This list cannot be regarded as exhaustive, and we may 
safely reckon the distinct varieties at over 2000, and the wild finds at 
r500. As a concrete example of what one man can doin a single 
district, Mr. J. Moly, of Langmoor in Dorset, is credited with no less 
than 600 distinct finds in that and adjoining counties. His near 
