IO 



MR. W. B. CRANFIELDS COLLECTION. 



Having been invited to Enfield by Mr. Cranfield and 

 commissioned by him to take stock of his collection of 

 British Fern varieties, with a view to their systematic 

 classification and proper naming, we have enjoyed a 

 peculiarly favourable opportunity of judging at once 

 the merits and the extent of a collection which we 

 imagine to be practically the most representative, the 

 choicest, and the most up-to-date of those existent at 

 the present time. The Kew collection, undoubtedly, far 

 exceeds it in numbers, but, on the other hand, fails to 

 include many of the latest acquisitions, both in the 

 way of new wild finds and forms obtained by selective 

 culture of the older types. The national collection is 

 also handicapped by a considerable admixture of inferior 

 varieties, which have established themselves as robust 

 specimens among the innumerable seedling ferns which 

 were planted, as it were on trial, when Mr. Carbunell's 

 and other collections were bequeathed or donated to 

 the nation in the last century. The Kew authorities, 

 however, have been so liberal in the allotment of space 

 to our British Ferns that there is room for all, and their 

 warmest admirers can only be grateful for the opportunity 

 thus afforded to the public of forming a fair idea of their 

 beauty and diversity. It is, however, with Enfield Chase 

 rather than Kew Gardens that we are dealing, and here 

 we have the additional factor that the owner is an ardent 

 fern student, who devotes himself persistently and 

 personally to the acquisition of the best types, their 

 culture under the most favourable conditions, and, above 

 all, to their propagation on selective lines of the most 

 discriminating kind. Happily his estate is large enough 

 to enable him to devote a very considerable space, or 

 rather spaces, to his pets under varied conditions. Bold 



