THE FERX BULLETIN 



93 



forms of ferns of commercial value. In Europe this 

 appears to be one of the main indications of an interest 

 in ferns and in consequence the named varieties are al- 

 most limitless. Often the appearance of the cultivated 

 forms are scarcely attractive from the point of view of 

 beauty, but their odd shapes seem to please the public 

 for it may be observed that if our own florists culti- 

 vate any of these European forms they almost invari- 

 ably select the crested, tasseled and frilled specimens. 

 It cannot be denied that variation along certain lines 

 adds to the beauty of an already beautiful race of 

 plants. Illustrations of this may be seen in the many 

 sports of the sword fern (Ncphrolepis exalt at a) all of 

 which are undoubtedly more beautiful than the type, 

 and in "Adiantutn farleyense" which is well known to 

 be a sport from a species that is not celebrated for its 

 appearance. Since most of our greenhouse ferns are 

 tropical in origin, the search for desirable forms will 

 go on most vigorously in the tropics and may lend 

 zest to every outing, but such fern hunting need by no 

 means be restricted to the tropics. The demand is 

 steadily increasing for the ferns of temperate regions, 

 hardy enough to endure our winters out of doors un- 

 protected, and if people are willing to pay for the 

 Christmas fern, the ostrich fern and the Osmimdas as 

 they are. surely they will pay more for improvements 

 in these forms, perhaps even coming to the point when 

 they demand the new form and refuse the type, as they 

 now do in the case of the so-called Boston fern. Mr. 

 Terry's multiUdum form of the Christmas fern is one, 

 that would always be selected in preference to the type 

 and the same may be said of various forms that Mr. 

 Hans has produced ; indeed a decided and characteristic 

 form of Polystichum acrostichoidcs incisum would no 



