368 BRITISH FERNS 



LIII 



POLYSTICHUM ACULEATUM, Vlir. PULCHERRIMUM (Jones) 



J no. Bevis, Hawkchurch. Dorset. 1876. 

 2 ft. 



Perhaps "the greatest discovery of modern times"; had this 

 plant fallen to the lot of the most aspiring hunter that ever bore a 

 vasculum, he could scarcely have helped feeling at the moment of 

 discovery that he had not lived quite in vain ; — but it was pulled 

 out of the hedge in a ploughed field by a common labourer who 

 knew nothing of Ferns. The whole find, — a goodly clump of six 

 or seven crowns, — was handed over to Mr. Wills, and by him 

 (with a rare liberality) very soon dispersed in about as many 

 different directions.* 



* Many and hot have been the discussions as to the species to which this 

 variety belongs. Mr. Wills, who knows the exact circumstances of its 

 discovery, and whose keenness of eye and instinctive knowledge in such 

 matters are well known, stoutly maintains that it is aculeatum, — and it has yet 

 to be proved that it is not either the plumose or pulcherrimum form of that 

 species ; — the slight tendency to crest at the extremity of the pinnae is rather 

 in favour of the latter supposition. It is a fact that not one of the plants has 

 yet produced the sign of a spore. Mr. Wollaston, who confesses it is "a 

 puzzler," admits that it has the aculeatum pinnule, and suggests that it may be 

 a natural hybrid. Mr. Wills, writing with reference to it, says, " I am inclined 

 to think it aculeatum, from its having a greater resemblance to it than to 

 angulare,— rigidity, though the parts are slender, — "sheen or gloss on upper 

 surface of pinnules, — shape of frond, — the same angle at parting from rachis, 

 — pinna; also tending to diminish in length from middle of frond downwards," 



Mr. Fox adds that it has also the peculiar shade of green of angulare. 



