- 4 6- 



THE CSNTURY BOOK OF GARDENING. 



as occur in wilder and tropical regions, is oncer- 

 tain, but the fact remains that while natural 

 sports of exotic Ferns are extremely few, those 

 of our native Ferns run into thousands, some 

 of the species, such as the Lady Fern (Athyrium 

 Filix-foemina), Shield Ferns (Polystichum aculea- 

 tum and P. annulare), and the Hart's-tongue 

 (Seolopendrium vulgare), have yielded their 

 hundreds apiece, while the number has been 

 immensely augmented by selection from their 

 seedlings. Nearly all the native species (about 

 forty) have afforded examples, many of which 

 are curious, but many far and away more 

 beautiful than the common types from which 

 they sprang. It is, of course, this feature of 

 improvement in decorative value which is our 

 main justification in advocating their culture, 

 since for mere oddities w e have no fancy, while 

 ardent admirers of exotics have stood entranced 

 before some of our thorough-bred British Ferns, 

 and declared no exotic could vie with them. 



The chief types of variation are two, viz. : 



1. Cresting or tasselling, in which the 

 normal tapering points of the fronds and side 

 divisions are formed symmetrically into tassels, 

 ranging from simple forks in some varieties to 

 repeatedly divided and many stranded hunches in 

 others. The fronds themselves may also be divided from merely twin fronds to such excessive 

 and repeated branching that a ball of Moss is the apparent result ; and 



2. The plumose, by many considered the more beautiful, in which the normal 

 side divisions of the frond and its parts are developed into extremely delicate dissection, 

 so that a frond normally bipinnate, that is, with side divisions ( pinna-) divided once 



again (pinnules), has these 

 latter sub - divisions recut 

 twice or even thrice, the 

 result being intensely beauti- 

 ful, and equivalent to the 

 transformation of a goose 

 feather into an ostrich plume. 



These two main types 

 are associated, in the natural 

 sports as well as in their im- 

 proved progeny, with many 

 sub-features affecting habit 

 and appearance, and in some of 

 the finest forms both are asso- 

 ciated, together the combina- 

 tion being the acme of loveli- 

 ness in Fern construction. 

 One of our own Lady Ferns, 

 for instance, A. f. f. superbum 



POL V STIC II UM .-, NGUL A RE I '.Iff PL UMOSUM DEKSUM. 

 I. I lie normal form of species. J. Wilt! find in South Devon. 

 3. Frond of " densum" raised from -'. 4. Pinnaof 

 raised from bulbil of " densum." 



■ imbricatum ' 



A. F. F. PI. UMOSUM /A' POSSESSION OF H.M. THE QUEEN. 



