CONCLUSION 



HAVE NOW FINISHED the descriptions of the ferns which, thus far, 

 have been met with growing wild in New Zealand and its immediate 

 dependencies ; and I have mentioned those which occur in the more distant 

 islands, which are considered as belonging to the Colony, so far as the 

 latter class are at present known. In various places I have mentioned 

 doubts that seem to need clearing up, as to whether ferns, generally classed 

 separately, may not be really only forms of the same plant, changed through 

 difference of soil and situation. Every one, who takes interest in horti- 

 culture, knows how very widely any plant may change under cultivation and 

 at length be called by another name ; and can, therefore, easily conceive 

 that similar changes may occur under merely natural conditions. I have 

 been often surprised at the very different appearance of ferns cultivated in 

 different people's ferneries under one name, particularly in the case of 

 Adianta ; and, since I have grown such plants very largely myself, I have 

 witnessed such changes in successive generations of seedlings as to satisfy me that 

 sorts very different in appearance may be really identical. The new varieties produced, 

 under cultivation in Europe, would almost need to be seen to be believed possible. A 

 very remarkable instance has lately occurred within my own experience. About nine 

 months ago, I received from Christchurch a plant of Pteris palmata, which was of the 

 usual type, i e., its fronds consisted of from three to five pairs of lateral pinnae, and a 

 terminal one, the whole of which were divided into long, narrow, pointed lobes, 

 extending nearly to the costae, so that each frond was almost bi-pinnate. I repotted 

 it, and probably used richer soil than that in which it had been previously grown, and 



