228 [Proc. B. N. F. C, 



greatest authority on Polystichums, has passed his judgment, 

 calling it 'a gem of the first water;' and the Polystichum 

 angulare divisilobum Craw for dice, found some years ago by a 

 labourer at Crawfordsburn. These most exquisite forms had 

 only hitherto been found in Devonshire." He concludes in 

 these words : — " Nature herself having in this as in many other 

 ways linked Ireland to us so closely in every branch of natural 

 history, shall we not all breathe a prayer — more than that, 

 resolve — that nothing shall ever sever the connection ? " 

 Shortly before Colonel Jones's death, in a letter to me about 

 some of my fern finds, he says : — " I have always regarded the 

 ferns in question as a distinct credit to you and to Ireland ; 

 and goodness me ! when I think of it, where would British ferns 

 be in case of a severance of Ireland from us ? I do not think 

 that this side of the subject has ever received the attention it 

 deserves." Within the last two years the collection at Kew has 

 been immensely enriched by gifts and bequests representing 

 many thousands of the finest forms. To what may not such a 

 collection as this be expected to grow, containing all that is 

 most beautiful, rare, and strange amongst the varieties of 

 British ferns ? Nor should such a collection fail to excite a 

 special interest in this country as being illustrative of, and at 

 the same time a record of, a branch of botany exclusively 

 British, and likely to remain so. For whatever discoveries in 

 other parts of the world may be in store for the future, it is at 

 present the fact that in no country of any considerable size 

 has the natural tendency of ferns to vary been developed to 

 anything like the same extent as in the British Isles. 



However great our taste and fancy for ferns may be, we can 

 never realise the enjoyment to be derived from them unless 

 we are successful in cultivating them. The love of ferns does 

 not merely consist in admiring them in a state of maturity when 

 presented to the eye, but in gathering them from their native 

 haunts and bringing them under cultivation, in administering 

 to their wants, and anxiously watching them as they slowly 

 unfurl their fronds. The common hedgerow, the old wall, the 



