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remota (if a hybrid), although barren by self-fertilization, 

 might be fertile if impregnated by the antherozoids of one 

 of the original parent species, and this would be in 

 accordance with what is known as to the behaviour of 

 hybrids generally. In that case, however, one would 

 expect the offspring to resemble the specific parent more 

 than does the hybrid parent, and thus to throw light upon 

 the ancestry of the original hybrid. It cannot be said that 

 this is the case with—these seedlings ; they are no nearer 

 to filix-mas or any other species than is remota itself, and 

 the ancestry of that fern remains as obscure as ever. My 

 own impression is that these seedlings were the offspring, 

 pure and simple, of L. remota, and that that fern (hybrid 

 or not) is occasionally fertile, like so many other ferns 

 long supposed to be barren. I have never myself sown 

 spores of remota, but the late Mr. Lowe states that he 

 made a score of trials without success. Nevertheless, it is 

 possible that the twenty-first or the thirty-seventh attempt 

 might be successful. 



(2) Another piece of ancient history : About 1876 the 

 late Mr. T. Mitchell, of Todmorden, found, in that district, 

 a beautiful plumose Blechnum. He refused to part with any 

 of this, and, to the best of my belief, it never produced 

 any spores, but eventually died " without issue," as the- 

 lawyers say. Several years afterwards Mr. W. Forster, 

 of Salford, sowed some old spores of quite another variety 

 of Blechnum (I forget what), and raised a considerable crop^ 

 of plants of exactly the same character as the Todmorden 

 plumosum. This fern is now in general cultivation, and is, 

 of course, known as Forster 's plumosum. It is quite 

 distinct from the bipinnate and bipinnatified forms of the 

 Airey strain, and could not, conceivably, have come from 

 that source. Its real origin remains a mystery. 



(3) A more recent case: In the autumn of 1910 my 

 brother, Mr. H. Stansfield, sent me, as a small plant, a. 



