i86 FERN GROWING 



Between 1868 and 1872 Mr. Mapplebeck was a very 

 successful exhibitor at the Royal Horticultural Society, and a 

 friendly rivalry existed between himself and the author, 

 sometimes one winning and sometimes the other ; but it is to 

 his independent experiments on crossing Ferns that we owe 

 him so much, as he began only seven years later than the 

 author, and long before any one else had thought it possible 

 to cross Ferns. He is the only one now alive of the portrait 

 group of hybridisers. 



