282 BRITISH FERNS 



X 



Kalothrix {Lowe) 



Mr. Hewlett, County Court House, Oxford. (Raised) 1870. 



Mr. Sim, Foot's Cray, Kent. (Raised) 1874. 



1 ft. 6 in. 



It was thought for some time that this was an Irish form of 

 plumosum, but Mr. Baxter writes that it came from the Chelsea 

 Botanic Gardens. With reference to this point Mr. Moore adds 

 that it must have been in this case a division from Stansfield's 

 original plant, half of which having been exhibited for a certificate 

 at S. Kensington soon after its discovery, was sent by Messrs. 

 Stansfield to Chelsea. It is strange, however, considering the very 

 marked tendency in the seedlings from the Oxford plant to run in 

 the Kalothrix strain, that no similar trace of this strain should ever 

 have been detected among the thousands of seedlings raised by 

 Messrs. Stansfield and others from the Yorkshire plant. The 

 nearest approach to an analogous form is in A.f. f. aciiminatissimum 

 of Stansfield (a seedling of plumosum), but the distinction is so 

 marked as rather to be an argument in favour of a different 

 parentage. 



The original plant was raised by Mr. Howlett from a form of 

 plumosum growing in the Oxford Botanic Gardens. Stimulated 

 by this result, Mr. Sim obtained a division of the Oxford plant, 

 also a seedling plumosum, raised by Mr. Howlett from the same 

 source, and from one of these (he is not certain which) he states 

 that he obtained at the first sowing some hundreds of plants, of 

 which about ten or twelve per cent, were Kalothrix , the remainder 

 varying between plumosum, sub-plumosum, and normal purple- 

 stemmed filix-fosmina. 



In the Sherardian Herbarium, Oxford Botanic Gardens, is to be 

 seen a wild frond gathered many years since in the Morne Moun- 

 tains, almost identical with Kalothrix. 



This variety requires extreme care in cultivation, strong light 

 being fatal to its beauty. When well-grown it is perhaps the most 

 delicately beautiful of British Ferns. Some of the happiest results 

 have been obtained under treatment suited to filmy ferns, to which 

 indeed in appearance it bears no slight resemblance. 



