53 



THE HARTSTONGUE FERN. 



(Continued.) 



The thoroughbred frilled forms, though barren, are, 

 however, happily gifted with the faculty of producing 

 buds from their detached frond bases, as we have fre- 

 quently described, and as these yield true plants much 

 more quickly than spores could do if produced, the 

 •crispums are by no means so handicapped as regards pro- 

 pagation as their perfect barrenness might suggest. So 

 'far we have dealt only with the frilled section of this truly 

 marvellous species, the varieties of which, however, must 

 far and away transcend in number and diversity those of 

 any other fern in existence, despite the normal simplicity 

 of structure. Of late years, too, though it might have 

 been considered that it had exhausted all possibilities, a 

 number of new varieties have arisen in the hands of 

 selective cultivators which prove the contrary. Only at 

 the last meeting of the R. H. S. Committee, already alluded 

 to, Mr. Amos Perry obtained a well-merited award for 

 another variety named S. v. plumosum, Perry's variety, 

 wherein beautiful and finely comminuted heavy tassels 

 were added to the very foliose form named " plumosum," 

 previously raised by Mr. H. Stansfield, and illustrated in the 

 "British Fern Gazette," September, 1912. In the issue 

 for December, 19 14, there is illustrated perhaps the most 

 remarkable alliance of this tasselling, with not only the 

 frilling of " crispum," but also the fimbriation or fringing, 

 which as will be seen by that picture adds greatly to the 

 ornamental character of the fern. All those that we have 

 mentioned belong to the elite as far as beauty is concerned. 

 Outside these there are scores of finely crested and other- 

 wise varied ones, and a host which many would consider 

 more curious than beautiful, and most of which are 

 seedlings from erratic types and crosses between them, 



