THE CROSSING OF FERNS. 



353 



lobum ovale, and got four plants of polydactylum with 

 pinnules divided in exactly the same way as multiiobum 

 ovale ; and I sowed it witli iuiBqualo variogatuni— the result 

 being five plants of a character so marked as to be conclusive. 

 Convinced at last of the reality of crossing, I sowed in faith ; 

 and as Mr. Fox and Mr. Carbonell followed on the same lines, 

 there is now hnrdly a distinct form of angulare that is not 

 polydactylous ; there are now polydactylous divisilobes, there 

 are frondose and decomposite forms ; forms also of lineare, 

 congoslum, and llexucsiim all polydactylous. Mr. Fox's most 

 marked success was, perhaps, his polydactylous congestum, 

 of which ho raised many plants ; but his cross of Athyrium 

 F.-f. roflexum with Craigii is not less marked. Mi'. Car- 

 bonell's crosses between P. ang. divisilobum of Padley, and 

 grandiceps, Moly, and crosses between polydactylum of 

 Padley and other forms, are well worthy of note. 



It is, I think, now perfectly clear that it only requires 

 patience and ordinary skill to effect endless crosses in almost 

 every species, for there is now hardly a species of British 

 fern in which there are not sufficient varieties to begin with, 

 and there are several species in which an addition to the 

 existing varieties would well repay any exertion — for in- 

 stance, in Osmunda regalis, Pteris aquilina, and Lastrea 

 recurva. On the other hand, care should bo taken to dis- 

 criminate between what are really now varieties and mere 

 trifling diffcrencos, and this partly from a sense of justice 

 to others, and partly to prevent flooding colleotiona with 

 interminable repetitions. The practice of raising from well- 

 known forms and putting in a claim for the general result, 

 is as little to be defended on grounds of logic as of morality. 

 Surely there should bo a gonei'ous rivalry between all en- 

 gaged in such a jrarsuit to accord to others what is their 

 du.e. 



