August 27, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



417 



exquisite beauty and grace of habit with the endless variety of 

 form which belong to British Ferns, as represented in the best 

 collections, astonish even experienced gardeners, who won- 

 der how it is that such beautiful plants are not more generally 

 grown. 



English Ferns in their wild forms are charming, but the 

 hundreds of varieties of them which have been got through 

 cultivation, selection and hybridization are simply marvelous. 

 Crested, crimped, contorted, made to develop characters of 

 the most astonishing divergence from the type, these plants 



plants thus bred. On the other hand, Mr. Oreury reckons 

 that spores of any sportive variety will produce a considerable 

 number of widely distinct forms without the aid of cross fer- 

 tilization. The Kew collection of British and other hardy 

 Ferns contains all the best of the varieties raised by Mr. Lowe 

 and the other specialists named. They are planted together 

 on a large rockery and mound, where they form a most inter- 

 esting feature of the garden. 



Tropical Ferns, also, were exhibited in great numbers, and 

 their merits were discussed by eminently qualified men. The 



Fig. 52. — Pyres arbutifolia. — See page 416. 



have so altered that it is often difficult to believe that they are 

 mere sports due to the skill of the cultivator. Mr. Lowe, Mr. 

 Dreury, the late Colonel Jones and Mr. Carbonnel appear to 

 have possessed the power of obtaining almost any character 

 they liked from a given Fern. Mr. Lowe attributes all these 

 variations to cross fertilization, and so confident is he that 

 Ferns cross quite freely that he professes to be able to obtain by 

 sowing the spores of six distinct forms together a plant which 

 will possess the combined characters of all the six ! 



This startling statement was almost too much for the phys- 

 iological botanists, but Mr. Lowe produced his specimens of 



horticultural papers here have since devoted much space to 

 Ferns of all kinds. The result of this " boom " cannot but be 

 to bring Ferns of all kinds into prominent notice. The papers 

 read at the conference and the discussions which followed 

 were devoted to the cultural requirements and distinctive 

 features of the best kinds of Ferns as well as to the botanical 

 relationships of the order. An appeal was made for simpler 

 nomenclature, the necessity for which is seen in such names 

 as Polystichum angularc, var. divisilobum plumosum densum, 

 the name attached to one of the most beautiful of the hardy 

 Ferns shown. 



