128 



recognized by their greater vigour, even before any 

 fronds are produced. Again, Polystichums are 

 much less liable than other ferns to appear as 

 strays. Strays are most frequently Athyriums or 

 Lastreas. 

 <{c) There were two of these plants, both of the same 

 character, and it is almost incredible that the gaunt- 

 let of coincidences could have been run twice over 

 in this case. 

 The experiment can, of course, be repeated, but pul- 

 cherrimums are kittle cattle, and it may be years before I 

 have another opportunity to lay down prothalli from this 

 plant. Also the present experiment has occupied six 

 years, and another five or six years may find the plant or 

 the experimenter " gone west." 



(4) I have often admired the grace and beauty of 

 Lastrea spinulosa in our Berks, and Hants, woods, and have 

 wished to discover a good variety of the species. About 

 1906 I found in Hampshire a plant of L. spinulosa having 

 a few furcate tips, and decided to sow it in the hope of 

 raising a multifid form from it. A sowing was made, and 

 in due time a good crop of seedlings appeared, but in the 

 meantime the original plant had quite reverted to the 

 normal type, and been cast into outer darkness. The 

 seedlings were allowed to develop for a time, but, as none 

 of them showed a trace of any abnormal character, they 

 were given to a nurseryman to be got rid of as " common 

 ferns," leaving no spinulosa in my collection at all. In 

 191 1 I made a sowing of a few spores (very rarely 

 produced) of Moly's variegated P. angulare pulcherrimum. 

 From that sowing plants have continued to be produced 

 at intervals from 191 2 until the present year, the offspring 

 being mainly a slender form of angulare without any 

 pulcherrimum character or variegation whatever. In 1913, 

 however, there appeared in this pot a very slender frond, 



