FERNS— HARDY AND EXOTIC. 



345 



Improved Joint raised by Mr, Pa sons. formal form of species. 



Plumose sports. 



any such thin cover as is usually present in other species. All Ferns with similar 

 naked round heaps are Polypodies, and so on. We seem, however, to he forgetting 

 the flowers, hut in point of fact we are coming to thorn. The little grains contained 

 in all the capsules are called spores, to distinguish them from seeds produced by flowers. 

 The spore when it falls upon a moist spot does not, as would a seed, throw out a root 

 and one or two leaves, and start at once as a plant like its parent, hut it pushes out a little row 

 of green cells which multiply and spread into a small heart-shaped scale about the size of a 

 herring scale. This forms root hairs to attach it to the soil and nourish it, and this being done, 

 if we detach it, turn it over, and look underneath, using a good magnifying glass, we shall find 

 the flowers at last, and shall no longer wonder at the blindness of our forefathers, for, apart 

 from the fact that this little scale had not been recognised as connected with Ferns at all, the 

 flowers when found turn out 

 to be simple, apparent pimples 

 of two kinds, one round, 

 numerous, and scattered all 

 about among the root hairs, 

 the other t e a t - 1 i k e , a n d 

 crowded together near the 

 indentation of the heart. 

 These two, however, between 

 them fulfil all the functions 

 of flowers, and eventually a 

 fertilised seed finds itself at 

 the base of the longer pimples, 

 and from this up springs a 

 Fern proper as proof that the 

 flowers have done their work'. 

 In the ordinary course the 

 youngster in due time becomes 

 a little "chip of the old block," 

 and cannot be discriminated 

 in any way from the thousands 

 of its kindred around it, but 

 this is not always the case. 

 Dame Nature every now and 

 again — how we know not — 

 infuses the power into the 

 Fern to build itself up in a 

 distinct and original way, 

 and as a rule the spores 

 subsequently produced yield 

 the new form generation after generation. These later offspring, however, are frequently also 

 endowed with original minds, as it were ; some improve on the first sport, some go back to 

 the normal, and others may be inconstant " rogues" who shift from plan to plan and make a 

 muddle of all. Among these varied offspring lie the selective cultivator's best chances, and it 

 is due mainly to these first inspirations of Nature, and secondly to the cultivator's care, that we 

 owe that wealth of varietal types of which we are now treating, while it is a moot point how 

 much we are indebted to the first for all the specific and generic variety existent in the world. 



With regard to these natural sports Great Britain seems especially favoured. 

 Whether it is some occult property in the air, soil, or general environment, or whether it 

 is due to the greater research in a country which is easily traversed and involves no such risks 



A . /. f plumosmn raised from suyerbum. A . f. f. suferbum raised by Mr. Virieyy. 



PEDIGREE OF ATHYRIUM FILIX-FCEM1NA PLUMUSUV. 



