FERN GROWING 17 



American species, to the Royal Horticultural Society, and 

 the late Sir William Hooker remarked 'that it was the most 

 probable instance he had yet met with of a real hybrid 

 amongst Ferns.' This was a hybrid between Camptosorus 

 rhizophyllus and Asplenium ebeneum. 



"The late Mr. Clapham, who had given the subject 

 careful investigation for some years, only became convinced 

 by seeing in 1879 the series of examples Mr. Lowe 

 took to the British Association at Sheffield — crosses of 

 varieties of Asplenium, section Athyrium, from mixed spores 

 of VictoricB and proteum* 



" Afterwards, about fifteen years ago, endeavours were 

 made by one of us (Mr. Lowe) to cross Aspidium aculeatum 

 with Aspidium angulare, and when the seedlings had become 

 mature (seven years afterwards) it was apparent, at all events 

 to the experimenter, that this cross had been accomplished, 

 but in only five examples out of 1000 seedlings. The 

 object was to obtain a narrow cruciate variety of Aspidium 

 aculeatum, a copy in Aspidium, aculeatum of the narrow cruciate 

 variety Wakelyanum. of Aspidium, angulare, for as yet this 

 was a desideratum. Aspidium angulare, variety Wakelyanum 

 (Fig. i),t was sown together with a dense-fronded variety of 

 Aspidium aculeatum, known as densum (Fig. 2), the result 

 being a hybrid cruciate A. aculeatum (Fig. 3). In 1884 

 specimens of this hybrid and a short paper were sent to the 

 Linnean Society, but this was not sufficient to remove the 

 doubts of botanists ; a year later, however, a letter from Sir 

 Joseph Hooker stated that the crossing of Ferns was then 

 an acknowledged fact.l This hybrid (Fig 3) and its parents, 

 together with some of the offspring of the hybrid, were last 

 year exhibited at the Bath Floral F^te, amongst the specimens 



* Proteum has only part of the fronds cruciate ; in proteoides all are cruciate, 

 t Figures I, 2, and 3 are pinnae from the centre of the fronds. 

 X Eighteen years after the Dundee Meeting of the British Association. 



B 



