— 1 0(5 — 



were just commencing to open during the early part of 

 August. 



The constant companion of Scolopendrium was Poly- 

 stichum lonchitis, which was usually as abundant or 

 more abundant than the former. At Owen Sound 

 Scolopendrium is known as tongue fern and is much used 

 as a house plant ; at Kemble it is termed palm fern. 



Macdonald Institute, Guelph, Out. 



REVERSIONS AND THEIR FLUCTUATIONS. 



By George E. Davenport. 



The recent tendency on the part of Nephrolepis Pier- 

 soni to revert to the original Boston form of N. exaltata 

 (var. Bostoniensis) would seem to show that that fern 

 was an actual sport from Bostoniensis, and not the result 

 of accidental crossing in the nursery, as has sometimes 

 been suspected. The precise explanation for this 

 tendency has not been ascertained, but it would be an 

 interesting subject for investigation if one had the .time 

 and patience to undertake it. Judging from my own 

 observations the reversion tendency is most observable 

 in some of the newer stock propagated, although I have 

 lately noticed it in the development of new fronds on old 

 plants. But the tendency of all such plants to revert to 

 original forms is well known and is in itself evidence of 

 the plant's origin. Hybrids appear to retain their pe- 

 culiarities permanently,, never seeming to lose altogether 

 the combined characteristics of the parent plants. 



I have had under my immediate observation in my 

 fern garden since 1893 the original and a dozen, or more, 

 additional plants of the hybrid fern Nephrodium crista- 

 tum X marginale, and although it has produced some 

 astonishing distortions, it has never produced a single 

 frond that could be said to have reverted to either 

 A r . cristatuni or A', marginale, the parent forms from 

 which it was derived. For several years past I have had 

 growing in my fern garden plants of Dicksonia pilosius- 



