384 BRITISH FERNS 



LXI 



Cristatum Mrs. Thompson (TVo/t.) 



Mrs. Agar Thompson. N. Devon, i860. 



1 ft. 9 in. 



Syn. Thompsons (Moore). 



One of the most deceptive of ferns, its transformations are truly 

 startling-. In its infant state it seems, and indeed is, in continual 

 danger of being strangled by the very extravagance of its growth, 

 for in point of cresting, branching, etc., it indulges in all the 

 wildest excesses that a Fern is capable of (and a large proportion 

 do die from suffocation), but it gets steadier after a bit, and the 

 ramose character becomes less and less marked as the plant 

 approaches maturity, but before it quite reaches this, it generally 

 breaks out once more into a fit of extravagance, but in another 

 direction, running to head, and assuming for a time the appear- 

 ance of a grand capitate form, so much so as to deceive the 

 unwary, and sometimes others too ; in this stage it narrows itself 

 at the base as if intending to establish itself permanently as a 

 grandiceps — but it does not really mean it — for after a bit it takes 

 more sober views, and either from this or from having exhausted 

 itself by early excesses it settles down at last into the humdrum 

 life of a very ordinary cristatum, and not even that always, for Mr. 

 Wollaston maintains that his plants of ThomsonicB generally run 

 out altogether, but his experience in this way is exceptional, for 

 it is still in the blood, and from spores of these almost normal 

 plants will spring a fresh brood, that will run through the same 

 wild career of extravagance, and settle down quietly at last like 

 their parents before them. If anyone is anxious to undergo a 

 series of surprises and disappointments, let him grow Thompsonice 

 from spores. 



Perhaps in its half-grown state it is seen to the greatest advan- 

 tage — it is then one of the most striking of British Ferns — com- 

 bining with the dark green foliose character and thickness of 

 cresting that are peculiarly its own the branching habit of 

 acrocladon ; in fact, so close a resemblance does it bear, in this 

 stage, to the latter variety, that the late Mr. Ivery, in spite of all 

 his experience, was completely led away, and with perfect good 

 faith sent out seedlings of it at a stiffish figure as acrocladon, 

 which he had subsequently to redeem. 



