would be the case if the prothalli were divided in the way I have 

 suggested. 



The most interesting feature of Lowe's work is the account 

 of his experiments in dividing prothalli, but he seems to have 

 overlooked the only certain way of proving the hybrid origin of 

 the ferns which he raised, and yet if he could do what he has 

 already recorded, and it is all very wonderful, he could cer- 

 tainly have accomplished this. It seems a pity that more of his 

 efforts could not have been directed to the crossing of distinct 

 species instead of abnormal varieties ; as it is, nearly all of his so- 

 called hybrids are mere crosses between varieties of one species 

 instead of hybrids between two distinct species. 



The only exception that I can find in his work, entitled " Fern 

 Growing," is his crossing of Aspidium filis-mas, var. paleaceum, 

 which he considered a distinct species from filix-mas, with 

 Aspidium abbreviation. The two ferns represent two very dis- 

 tinct species, if not genera, one being a Nepkrodium, and the 

 other a Cyrtomium, or Polystichum ; yet of several hundred 

 young ferns raised he seems to have found only three show- 

 ing any trace of paleaceum, the others being all abbreviatum. 

 His crossing of Aspidiuin acute atum with angulare, which 

 he considered as two distinct species, can only be received nega- 

 tively, as Hooker, Baker, Prof. Eaton, and other eminent pteri- 

 dologists have regarded angulare as only a good variety of 

 aculeatum, and that is my own judgment. So that in summing 

 up the result of his fifty years' labor, as published in the work 

 quoted, we find only one instance in which hybridity can justly 

 be claimed This leaves us with very little evidence of hybridity 

 from that source. 



More recently, however, he has apparently succeeded in 

 crossing Scolopendrium vulgar e with Ceterach officinarum, two 

 very distinct genera, and the resultant fern is said to combine in 

 a very marked degree the essential features of both the parent 

 species. This is vouched for by Druery ( M.) in Gardner s 

 Chronicle, for September, 1895, and is certainly most interesting, 

 as it is not only a departure from Lowe's previous crossings, but 

 furnishes an instance of bigeneric hybridity analogous to that of 

 Asplenium ebenoides. 



I must dwell for a few moments on the case of this latter, 

 because Dr. Underwood has recently, and with much show of 

 reason, seriously questioned its claim to be considered a hybrid 



