212 [Proc. B.N.P.C, 



native ferns have immensely advanced and improved. At the 

 beginning of the nineteenth century ferns generally were an 

 enigma to the biologist, and their varietal capacity only 

 known to a small extent, contemporary books only referring 

 vaguely to a few " monstrosities," which might be reckoned on 

 the fingers. In the middle of the century and onwards 

 varieties became the study of the pioneers, and some scores 

 of fine forms have been found and many more have been 

 raised. Since then only a few fern lovers have sustained the 

 cult, and it is hoped that during the present century there 

 will be a fuller appreciation as the outcome of their labours. 

 The varieties are often called " sports," and by some " mon- 

 strosities " and " diseases " but on careful examination such 

 terms cannot be rightly applied to those beautiful forms 

 which are the pride of every grower. From observation it is 

 found, as a rule, that the ojffspring of the ferns, like those of 

 other organisms, resemble their parents so closely as to be 

 generally indistinguishable from them in their specilic 

 characters, but this is by no means always the case, since on 

 careful examination of wild plants growing under perfectly 

 natural conditions, very extraordinary departures from the 

 normal forms are found under circumstances which leave no 

 doubt whatever that they have originated with their widely- 

 marked peculiarities, fully developed, direct from a spore 

 off the surrounding normal forms. The two most striking 

 varieties of Athyrium {victorice and acrocladon) are examples 

 of this, and so are all the entirely barren forms, such as the 

 many wild finds of the frilled or crisped Scolopendrmm, Poly- 

 podium, and others, which must have originated from normal 

 spore-bearing forms. To such a wonderful extent has this 

 variation been exhibited that at present our British species, 

 few as they are, have yielded many thousands of absolutely 

 distinct forms. It must not be imagined for a moment that 

 these varieties are finely-drawn differences only appreciable 

 to the eye of an expert ; they represent differences in form, 

 often far greater than those between separate families 

 altogether, and ranging in a single species so widely that a 



