THE CROSSING OF FERNS. 



341 



been made in " The Crossing of Ferns," and it occurred 

 to me that some record on tliis point also might add to tlie 

 interest and completeness of the work, and that, as very 

 many of the experiments referred to had been made in this 

 neighbourhood, the subject might not be without interest 

 to your Society, who I thought were thus clearly entitled 

 to the offer of the earliest information. Hence my proposal 

 to read a paper. It had always been my intention that 

 one copy of " The Nature Prints " should remain in Bristol ; 

 and as your over-watchful Secretary has told me that the 

 natural place for that copy is in the library of your Society, 

 I will only add, that if, when completed, it shall appear 

 worth your acceptance, you are very welcome to it. 



The crossing of ferns, like other new truths, has had to 

 go through all the different stages of ridicule and incre- 

 dulity, until the convictions of a few have at last forced 

 conviction upon the majority, and the fact has received public 

 recognition. I claim for the much-despised race of British 

 fernists the credit of having established the truth in this 

 iu stance. 



Until comparatively recent times it was generally accepted 

 that ferns did not cross; and yet, considering the assistance 

 which, in their endless cliangos of stvnctnve, other forms of 

 life were known to derive from the power inherent in them 

 of crossing naturally, it must at times have seemed strange 

 to the more thoughtful that in a class of plants so remarkable 

 for variation as ferns that power should be altogether absent. 



No doubt the faculty of natural variation (independently 

 of crossing) is great in ferns, as elsewhere ; and no doubt, 

 also, in certain species of ferns, and of British ferns es- 

 pecially, this power of natural variation is so conspicuous 

 that the more cautious botanists hesitated for a time— and 



