8 FERN GROWING 



two characters one is much more pronounced than the other. 

 Multiple parentage very materially increases this difficult)', 

 especially where the three or four characters are almost 

 equally balanced. However, in those cases it will be easier 

 to refer to two or three classes than to search throughout 

 the whole varieties, as would be the case if there were no 

 classification. This classification will, however, have but little 

 to do with the present volume. 



Preliminarily it may be mentioned that the author has 

 never (in fifty years' hunting) found two wild fertile varieties 

 exactly alike. Yet the spores from each \'ariety will, if sown 

 alone, reproduce the variety, though not when two varieties 

 are sown thickly together. 



Sterile Ferns of the crispum form of Scolopendrium vulgare 

 are found in numbers together. They are not only found as a 

 cluster of plants mostly almost exactly alike in isolated places of 

 only a few yards in extent, but we have the experience of Colonel 

 Jones, who found twenty-nine near Shirenewton, not at the same 

 time, but in the course of over six years. Again, Major Cow- 

 burn discovered six on a wall at Dennel Hill, and each year 

 one or two more till he had found nineteen, and the gardener 

 tells the author that more are now growing on the same 

 wall. Colonel Jones's crispums are all broad, and growing 

 more or less horizontally, i.e., the fronds are pendent ; but 

 Major Cowburn's are all erect and cut on the margin. At 

 WoUaston, Gloucestershire, a crispum was found one hundred 

 years ago, and on the same spot last year Mr. E. Boyle 

 found others. Mr. Baldwyn found a dozen near Tintern, 

 Mr. Bull several near St. Pierre, and each locality has its 

 individuality. None of Colonel Jones's twenty-nine have 

 ever shown any signs of spores. In all these isolated spots 

 there are plenty of common Scolopendriums, but it is doubt- 

 ful as to how these crispums are produced. The Dennel 

 Hill crispums are occasionally sparingly soriferous, and ad- 



