228 VAIHETIES OF FERNS IN THE JiRTSTOL DrSTIiiCT. 



tricacy of detail or novolt-y of structure wliich interests tlie 

 mind not less than it attracts the eye ? 



Such a collection as it may be hoped will now bo formed 

 at Kew, containing all that is most beautiful, rare, and 

 strange amongst the varieties of British ferns, would not 

 only be an additional attraction to any garden, but in the 

 not uninteresting study of the morphology of ])lants a very 

 practical aid. 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 pre-eminently 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. 



It has been well remarked that it would seem as if Nature 

 had compensated for the small number of species she has 

 allowed us by gifting them with an unlimited power of 

 deviation. No doubt this power varies very much in dif- 

 ferent districts. No one who has really given attention to 

 the subject can have failed to recognise how marked are the 

 distinctions in this respect in our own country, some districts 

 being hopelessly barren of any varieties of note, while other 

 parts more favoured positively teem with them. How far 

 this may bo due to soil, how far to tdimate, or to a combina- 

 tion of the two, or to any other material agency, or whether 

 the fairies may not have a word or two to say about the 

 matter, I leave to others to determine. The fact however 

 cannot be disputed, and, being so, why should not the prin- 

 ciple have larger application? Let us therefore, while we 

 can, onj'oy the idea that in this respect wo are a iavonred 

 country. 



