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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



remotely analogous, as the two generative nuclei were derived 

 from the same pollen-grains. Among the lower plants a few 

 cases of the kind were known. It had been stated that in Fucus 

 more than one spermatozoid united with the ovum, but recent 

 observations had rendered this very doubtful. 



Mr. Lowe's explanation of the facts could hardly be accepted 

 by botanists until direct microscopic observation had established 

 the possibility of multiple fertilisation in Ferns. 



PLUMOSE BRITISH FERNS. 



By Mr. C, T. Druery, F.L.S. 



In selecting for the subject of my paper the plumose section of 

 the varieties of our indigenous Ferns, I have been actuated 

 to some extent by my own special taste, and also by the 

 conviction that, so far as the mere instinctive admira- 

 tion for the beautiful is concerned, that taste is generally 

 shared by the friends who visit my collection. With the 

 ladies especially I find the conventional expressions of ad- 

 miration unmistakably emphasised into sincerity when the 

 delicately cut, yet normally shaped fronds of the plumose Lady 

 Ferns or Shield Ferns are under examination. On the other 

 hand, when I parade for their delectation the heavily crested 

 forms of the same species, laying special stress upon those which 

 are furthest removed from the common type, almost invariably 

 there is some allusion, more or less broad, to that ornament of 

 our kitchen-gardens, but hardly of our conservatories, " Parsley " 

 — even that marvel of cristation, Athyrium filix-foemina var. 

 acrocladon, and its still more extraordinary progeny, provoking 

 this, from my point of view, degrading comparison. 



Another and probably more potent reason for my choice lies 

 in the fact that I have been exceptionally fortunate in raising, in 

 a very unexpected manner, some very beautiful new plumose 

 Athyria, a few of which I have exhibited in company with their 

 progenitors in that family and various plumose forms of other 

 species. 



The form of variation known as " plumation " consists in an 



