Notes and News 25 



(C. fragilis) dies down early in the autumn. In my 

 conservatory which is quite cold and in which all plants 

 are frozen in the winter, I have a pot of this fern, now 

 in April, which still carries last year's fronds in a quite 

 green and living condition. This is all due to the fern 

 falling into the hands of a true fern lover instead of a 

 botanist whose only thought is of his cherished grave- 

 yard, the herbarium, for which a frond or two at the 

 time would have sufficed, while the precious roots 

 would, if properly treated, have supplied him and his 

 friends with an indefinite supply later on if treated 

 discreetly I remember another kindred case some years 

 ago, also in the United States, where a collector proudly 

 recorded a new find of which he took all the first crop 

 of fronds in the early summer and then gave a friend 

 the "tip," who went in the autumn and gathered the 

 second one, almost inevitably killing the root outright. 

 I should not like to see such a "triumph" debited to 

 my name. Quite possibly the A. pedatum in question 

 would have gifted the horticultural world with an ever- 

 green form of that delightful fern, especially since so 

 many of its kindred, unlike Cystopleris are evergreen. 



Chas. T. Druery. 



Chas. T. Druery 



In a recent issue of "Garden Life," a London weekly 

 devoted to horticulture, appears a brief sketch of the 

 life of Chas. T. Druery. It is an interesting account of 

 the scientific and literary achievements of this enthusi- 

 astic student and grower of ferns. Members of the 

 Fern Society will be interested to know that Mr. D ™ er >' 

 was one of the first to receive the Victorian Gold Medal 

 of Honor in Horticulture, and that he is the author ot 

 two volumes of verse and several humorous works be- 

 sides his well known books on British Ferns, lne 



