

2IO 



developed to make sure whether it will be distinct from 

 that variety. In 191 6 the same hunter found a nice variety 

 of Blechnum spicant on an old wall in the county of Bucks r 

 quite near to the Middlesex border. It was very small 

 and stunted when found, but was finely toothed in the way 

 of Airey's serratum No. 1 . It has now made some growth 

 of a morefoliose type, and seems likely to be near to Airey's 

 serratum No. 2, which is one of the finest known varieties of 

 the species. It will, however, not be named until it has 

 attained maturity and, with it, its final character. The 

 finding of these three Ferns, by a new hunter and in quite 

 new Fern country, is a good omen for the future. The 

 discovery of a " Cambricum " Polypody in East Anglia is a 

 further example of the absurdity of naming a plant from 

 the locality in which it is first discovered. Another case 

 of this hasty nomenclature is to be found in P. v- 

 Comubiense, which has been found in Wales and, more 

 recently, in Devonshire as well as in Cornwall. 



F. W. S. 



EVERGREEN HARDY FERNS. 



Our British species of Ferns are pretty equally divided 

 into two sections, the evergreen and the deciduous. The 

 former retain their fronds through the winter and until 

 the fresh growth replaces them the following season, and 

 the latter die down to the ground in the autumn, whether 

 protected or not. In many hands, where this latter 

 peculiarity is not understood, the gradual discoloration 

 and subsequent decay of the fronds, without any touch 

 of frost or other apparent reason, is construed as actual 

 death of the plant itself, especially as there is not, as in 

 the more familiar case of deciduous trees and shrubs,, 

 anything left above ground to indicate persistent vitality, 

 nothing remaining visible but a dead-looking, hard caudex. 



