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symmetry and thoroughness being retained, so that this 

 particular character may be, and often is, greatly enhanced 

 in a generation or two, or even in one. It is due to this 

 fact that at the present time we have a very large number 

 of varieties, especially in the Polystichums, Scolo- 

 pendriums, and Athyria, which are so improved by 

 selection, that they far and away excel in beauty any 

 of the wild " finds " or Nature's unaided productions. 

 Among these latter, however, rank, almost without excep- 

 tion, the typical "sports" which form the basis of the 

 numerous sections under which the British varieties have 

 been classed. Something, too, has been done, but not 

 much, in the way of combinations of varietal types by 

 crossing, a branch which has yet to be properly cultivated, 

 but the practicability of which has been demonstrated by 

 several striking examples. In the early days to which we 

 have referred, the number of wild " sports " available as 

 a start was not very great, and among these were a large 

 percentage of what we may term Nature's failures. These, 

 of course, from the botanical biologists' point of view, are 

 as interesting as are the best from that of the critical 

 collector, since in either case we find, for no explicable 

 reason, that the normal structural plan pursued presum- 

 ably for ages, has been rejected and a new one adopted, on 

 what can only be qualified as new specific lines, since the 

 change is inheritable and permanent. These "failures," 

 however, at the period we allude to, were regarded as 

 "curios," and as equally interesting from the collectors' 

 point of view as the "elite." They consequently found 

 their way into trade hands, and being propagated yielded 

 a copious crop of eccentrics. These were dignified with 

 quasi-descriptive names and long descriptions, and quoted 

 at high prices, based quite as much on defects, as we now 

 consider them, as on their merits as decorative plants. 

 To give a typical example from R. Sim's Catalogue, 1863^ 



