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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



pccted to hold their own in the future also. In No. 4, a sister 

 plant to superbum, a singular example of local variation may be 

 noted, two pinnae on one frond being quite distinct in character 

 from the rest of the plant. In concluding my notes on this batch 

 I would especially invite comparison between the uncrested 

 types and No. 10, a grandiceps form, as affording possibly a 

 unique case of wide variation in one batch of spores. It is worthy 

 of note that Mr. J. H. Fitt, from whom I received the frond from 

 which I raised the original batch, also made a sowing therefrom, 

 with the same result of a large percentage of crested plants, 

 minus, however, the siLpcrbum. 



Eeflecting upon these phenomena of cresting as associated 

 with plumation, it seems to me that both are probably closely 

 akin. In cresting we have a localised tendency to repeated 

 fission and extension of growth on the apices of the fronds, 

 pinriae, and even the pinnules, terminal tassels being thus 

 formed. In plumation we have a generally distributed tendency 

 towards simple fission and extension of all apices, resulting in a 

 greater featheriness. 



This idea may be better grasped by a minute inspection of 

 the pinnulets or tertiary divisions. In the case of the common 

 Lady Fern, it will be noticed that the minor subdivisions are 

 provided with simple veins running to their blunt apices. In a 

 pinnulet from the Axminster variety w T e find an immense advance 

 and it will be noticed not only that the veins fork more than 

 once, but that the apices in many cases show a distinct tendency 

 to fork again. There are also forked veins running out to the 

 sinus between the divisions, and forming small subsidiary divi- 

 sions, which at a later stage w T ould, I expect, bear spores and 

 bulbils. A plant of the third generation shows more decided 

 forking and extension, and with a peculiar tendency in the tips 

 of the divisions to curve inwards, which gives a decided character 

 to the variety. A pinnulet of one of the offspring of superbum 

 shows a further advance in plumation and betrays its grand- 

 parents still by the inturned tips. Finally, the crest of a pinnule 

 of elcrjans cristatum, a sister plant to superbum, shows the 

 localised ramification of the veins, which constitutes cresting, in 

 conjunction with the simple dichotomous forking and lengthening 

 which produce plumation, and you will, I think, agree with me 

 that no line can here be drawn between the two. 



