12 



THE 



GARDENERS' 



MA G A ZINE. 



January i, 189S. 



Varietal Development in British Ferns. 



Dr. F. W. Stansfield, President of the British Pteridological Society, devoted 

 his presidential address at the annual meeting of the society to the development of 

 varietal forms. He said : The history of British fern varieties is almost wholly 

 comprised within the last fifty years. Before 1850 only some half dozen to half a 

 score of varieties seem to have been recognised. Polypodium vulgare cambncum, 

 described as a species by Linnaeus, was first recognised as a variety by Willdenow. 

 It is first referred to in print in the " British Herbal," published in 1743. P. v. 

 semilacerum and Asplenium trichomanes incisum are about equally ancient. 

 Lastrea paleacea cristata, Polystichum angulare proliferum (now acutilobum pro- 

 liferum, Choule) were known at Kew in 1850, and probably Scolopendrium vulgare 

 marginatum, though I have not been able to find any reference to this last. L. 

 paleacea Pinderi, according to " Ferns of the Lake District," was found in 1841, 

 but possibly this is a misprint. A crested form of Lady Fern is said to have been 

 growing on Winchester Cathedral from time immemorial. The earliest variety of 

 whose origin there is explicit record is Polypodium vulgare omnilacerum, found by 

 a Mr. Bennett in 1848. When seen in its best character this is still one of the 

 grandest of polypodies, but unfortunately it has a bad habit of" subsiding from 

 its handsome deeply lacerate character into a poor serrate form ; it is consequently 

 but seldom seen in collections, and still more rarely in its best form. 

 V ■ In 1850 my late friend, Mr. Edwin Fox, found a reflexed athyrium in S, 

 Devon. This may now seem a very small achievement to us who have probably 

 all found reflex forms of the Lady Fern, but it is important as indicating the 

 beginning of systematic fern hunting. In 1851 appeared the still well-known 

 favourite Scolopendrium vulgare laceratum, found by a Mr. Young in Somerset. 

 Also Mr. Wollaston appeared on the warpath, and found his first Blechnum 

 spicant trinervium. In 1852 the same hunter found his grand acutilobe angulare, 

 which was first known as Polystichum angulare proliferum Wollastoni. This was 

 memorable, not only as a good thing in itself, but still more as being the fore- 

 runner of the bewildering multitude of lovely forms of angulare with divided lobes, 

 since classified into acutilobes, multilobes, divisilobes, &c, but for long lumped 

 together as " proliferums." In the same year was found a crispy and sometimes 

 multifid form of Bristle Fern by Colonel Lowe. In 1853 Mr. Wollaston found his 

 first Blechnum spicant cristat urn. In 1854 appeared quite a number of new and 

 good varieties, of which, perhaps, the most noticeable was Polystichum 

 angulare brachiato-cristatum, Grey — still, when true, the finest of its race, but un- 

 fortunately a little inconstant in its character. Probably at least a dczen other finds cf 

 brachiato-cristatum have since been made, many of them irregular and unworthy 

 of cultivation, but in almost all there is the same association of characters, viz., 

 the brachiate and crested and with them a peculiar toothing or cutting and shorten- 

 ing of the pinnules different from that of any other group of varieties. This is a 

 singular and unexplained association, but the varieties are far too numerous for it 

 to be considered mere coincidence. In the same year, 1854, Elworthy found his 

 truncate cruciate annulare. Also two fine polypodies were discovered, viz., the 

 old cristatum and the mifTy little plant named multitido-cristatum by Moore but 

 more correctly afterwards grandiceps Parker, by Wollaston. Every fern grower is 

 familiar with the former, but the latter is still rare, and, indeed, has always been 



rare. 



In 1855 was found lastrea paleacea Scholfieldi, a dwarf ramose variety, from 

 which ten years afterwards spotted the beautiful little ramulosissima. In the same 

 Year, as recorded by Mr. Lowe, Asplenium lanceolatum microdon was first found 

 by Miss Wilkinson. Several other plants of this curious form were afterwards 

 found l»y C. Jackson and others, as also of the corresponding form of A. adiantum- 

 uigruin. These forms are regarded by Mr. Wollaston and Mr. Lowe as "un- 

 doubted hybrids with A. marinum," though it is by no means clear upon what 

 pounds this confident opinion is based. It is true that they are both apparently 

 barren, but barrenness is by no means exclusively confined to hybrids, and even if 

 it were, it is still possible that these forms may eventually turn out, like many 

 other varieties once thought to be sterile, to be not barren after all. This is a 

 problem which those of us (alas ! too few) who have leisure and room to spare 

 should try to settle— on the one hand by trying to raise hybrids between, say, 

 lanccolatum and marinum, and on the other hand by endeavouring to raise off- 

 Spring from spores or by apospory from microdon. I do not say the hybrid theory 

 \% wrong, but it is a case of M not proven." 



In 1856 Elworty found his Polystichum angulare plumosum. According to 

 Colonel J ones, C. Jackson was the first discoverer of a plumose angulare. Mr. 

 Wollaiton also found one, which is the best known and most widely diffused on 

 account of its fertility. The next year, 1857, produced Lastrea filix-mas Bollandise, 

 still, so far as I know, the only truly and purely plumose form of the species. 

 Also the very distinct Athyrium filix-foernina Frisellia, and the marvellous 

 Scolopendrium vulgare Claphami, the earliest type of the fimbriate crispum. This 

 u . found not by Mr. ( lapham hut by that gentleman's coachman, Thomas Smith. 

 This year, 1857, also saw the accidental discovery of a good standard fern. 

 0.mun<la rcgalii criatala. It was rooted up by a fem-collector named John 



' A ™ «old among others in a wholesale lot to Messrs. Osborn, of Fulham, 

 N*h vendor and purchasers being at the time equally unconscious of the prize with 

 which they were dealing. 



The year 1858 produced Polystichum aculeatam acrocladon and Scolopendrium 

 vulgare hmhospcrmo-cristatum of Elworthy, the last a form which is now rarely 

 seen and of * inch much is not generally thought, but which when seen at its best, 

 Ml remember to have seen it, is a lovely thing, with long narrow fronds and 

 complex lace-hkc crests. In 1859 the famous Scolopendrium vulgare Stansfieldi 

 appeared, a crispum-fimbcktum, which was inquired for in vain many years after 



La C f*^ d t0 ", Ut M a di * lilKt In this ) ,car * l *> Mr. Clapham found 



his Asplenium trichomanes incisum, a beautiful and distinct form afterwards known 

 a, incisum < Upharm, and which so far as I remember resembled very closely my 

 graruifathct s masum tnan^ul.irc found nine years later. 



The year i860 was a veritable annm mirabiiis in the fern world, being 

 EST! T ' dtt€ 2 t T of J 1 ***"'* plumose Lady fern as well'aTthe 



^ niix.fct.mini acrocladon ; A. f -f. 



ILL^^ U , ul > cr ^!5 Athyrium); Polystichum angulare crisutum Mrs 



I^^ { ^ l ?t?*Z n aS Thompsons) ; Elworthy s I . a. r >tu 



* ach * 



fere I*mo-m*tginatinn of Clapham ; S. v. digitatum J. 



h«rh£Z» /« » 1 . nom P son ^)» Klworthy's P- ». rotundatum ; Grey's 

 Uach»tum (not bxachiato-cmiatum) ; p. Wakeleyanura (emciato-emtatum) ; 



W'll H, f ' ""'o ^natum of Clapham ; S. v. digitatum J. 



Hudd «V ™< three Lad? ferns fitit 





1 ! 









tl 



oca^ooaHjr brachkte-at all events, as I remember it, u w- «* pracnute at all 



andt SSLE? i' °T turns. H f acrocladon was, 



2* ?! \*»y 't'«n« raruoMsannum character, but still moxc 



re an ^H^e^XS. **" ^ **** - 



the 



*hich 



The year 1861 saw the discovery of Talbot's Polystichum angulare grandiceps 

 (still perhaps the neatest grandiceps form of angulare) ; Polypodium vulgare 

 pulcherrimum, Addison— a rival to omnilacerum and Cambricum ; Scolopendrium 

 vulgare crispum Drummondiae, another fimbriate crispum, and interesting as 

 having in after years served, in Mr. Druery's skilful hands, to demonstrate the 

 analogy (first suggested by Colonel Jones) between the fimbriate crispums and the 

 pulcherrimum varieties of Polystichum angulare by producing aposporous offspring. 

 I am firmly convinced that any of the other truly fimbriate crispums would do the 

 same thing under favourable conditions. Other ferns of this year were Athyrium 

 filix-fcemina cruciatum, Pritchard ; Lastrea filix-mas Barnesi ; and last but not 

 least, A. f.-f. Victoria. 



In 1862 came Mapplebeck's Polystichum angulare acrocladon, a remarkable 

 form long supposed to be barren, and which has never yet been proved to be other- 

 wise. The analagous case of A. f.-f. acrocladon, however, indicates a hope that 

 its sterility may one day be broken by care and skill, as in the case of its analogue I 

 in Athyrium f.-f. The same year saw Padley's Vale of Avoca Polystichum angu- I 

 lare polydactylum, the first of that race afterwards developed by Colonel Jones, 

 and upon which some of us think he wasted so much skill and energy. Blechnum | 

 spicant lineare Barnes, and Lastrea filix-mas grandiceps (found on Warton Crag) 

 were worthy northern finds. In this year Mr. Moly found his first angulare pul- 

 cherrimum, though the first had been found a few years before by C. Jackson. Mr. [ 

 Moly has been by far the most successful finder of these wonderful forms, having 

 found probably a gi eater number than all other hunters combined. Mr. Jackson 

 Mr. Wills, Rev. C. Padley, and his sister, Mrs. Thompson, are the only others, so 

 far as I know, who have succeeded in finding pulcherrimums, and they have each 

 found one only. These beautiful and wonderful forms are most provoking things 

 to grow — indeed, I have found their cultivation too exciting to be healthy. They 

 are full of surprises, and the surprises are often disappointments. Most of them 

 are intermittent in character. Colonel Jones grew a plant of Mrs. Thompson's 

 pulcherrimum for ten years before he got a characteristic frond, and then he was 

 rewarded by a frond of rare and wonderful beauty. I have a plant of the same, 

 which is at present a perfectly normal angulare, but which may any year give two 

 or three pinme of true character just to show that it has not forgotten. Wills 

 found one which remained constant for years, and which is a great beauty ; when 

 in character, however, it is a bad grower, and if by any chance you get it to do 

 well the probability is that it will cruelly jilt you by dropping its character like a j 

 mask and reverting to practically normal angulare. I have in my garden a plant 

 which was perfectly true last year, and which still has the true fronds of last year 

 green upon it. A strong and vigorous crown last autumn raised my hopes high. 

 Judge then of my disappointment when the fronds came up this spring plain 

 angulare ! Once fallen from grace, as it were, this variety, in my experience, 

 never returns to its duty — once a renegade it is always a renegade. The most 

 generally satisfactory pulcherrimum I have seen is a green one of Moly's, which, 

 though always producing some normal fronds, always produces with them a 

 certain proportion of true pulcherrimum character, which is thus always more or 

 less in evidence. Another of Mr. Moly's finds which I have is his variegated 

 pulcherrimum. It is a marvellous thing when at its best as a young plant. It 

 never produces any normal fronds, but is always pulcherrimum. The 

 combination of rich green in its pinnae with various shades of yellow from pale 

 lemon to deep orange, is a study in colour not to be forgotten. As I said before, 

 when a young plant, with fronds, say, a foot long, it is perfect and altogether 

 lovely. But, alas ! when it loses the innocence of youth it develops traits of 

 wickedness, which suggests that there is a good deal of human nature in its com- 

 position. Even then, however, it seems to start each new year with good inten- 

 tions : the first eight or nine pair of pinnae on each frond will be symmetrical and 

 beautiful, but, as the fronds continue to unfurl, we find that the upper pinnae are 

 more or less contracted, depauperate, irregular, and — it must be said — ragged. It 

 is thus a combination of all that is best with all that is worst in fern nature. Who 

 shall deliver it from this burden of sin ? — eliminating the bad while preserving the 

 good ? That is the task which I have set myself, gentlemen, and I do not mean to 

 give it up so long as I can keep the fern alive and so long as I keep life myself. 

 Pardon this long digression on my special hobby of pulcherrimums ; I will now 

 resume my discourse. 



In 1863 Mr. Barnes found his Athyrium filix-foemina plumosum and his Scolo- 

 pendrium vulgare semilacerum robustum ; J. Hartley his acutilobe angulare ; and 

 Mr. Bolton his Scolopendrium vulgare ramo-digitatum — not a bad contingent 

 from the north ; my grandfather found his two forms of Asplenium trichomanes 

 incisum in Co. Clare, and Mrs. Thompson found her Polystichum angulare 

 pulcherrimum. The year 1864 produced P. a. tripinatum Gillett— a noble form 

 only to be thoroughly appreciated when seen grown to its full size in the open 

 air in the south-west. Wright's Lastrea paleacea ramosissima, Scol. v. spirale 

 Barnes, and Lastrea filix-mas crispata Hodgson were other notable finds ; while 

 some good new forms were raised from spores, of which may be mentioned 

 Athryrium filix-fcemina splendens by Barnes, and A. f.-f. glomeratum, of Ivery. 



Another memorable year was 1865, it having seen the discovery of the two 

 forms of Asplenium adiantum-nigrum grandiceps, A. marinum imbricatum, Scolo- 

 pendrium vulgare grandiceps John Cousins, S. v. undulato-supralineatum Jones, 

 Lastrea propinqua gracilis, of Forster ; L. montana Barnesi, Polystichum aculea- . 

 turn cristato-gracile Bolton, and many others. Of these the first place must be 

 given to Mr. Barnes's montana, which can well be done without placing any slight 

 upon the host of other good things. At that time Barnesi was an absolutely 

 unique fern, and I well remember the delight and admiration with which I first 

 looked upon it, a magnificent plant two feet high, in Mr. Barnes's garden. This 

 was several years after it was found, I think about a quarter of a century ago. 

 Whitwell and Westlake have since then found fine forms similar to Barnesi m 

 outline, but I believe neither of them has, at all events to the same extent, that 

 peculiar horizontal setting of the pinnae which made Mr. Barnes compare his plant 

 to "a perfect ladder of the fairies." 



The great find of 1866 was Polystichum angulare plumosum Patey, tetter 

 known as Pateyi, a noble and magnificent fern, which was long stigmatised 

 as barren, but which has to my knowledge several times produced spores, 

 and of which at least one seedling has been raised by Mr. Cropper. 



has the one fault, if fault it be, of being rather 

 its atmosphere and conditions. It is only in the 

 cultivators, who are also favoured with a moist and 

 genial atmosphere (t.£\, such men as Bolton, Tyldsley, Cropper, and Moly), that 



c lS i rcaIly in * U best form ' Ckter good things of the year were Colonel Jones s 

 Scolopendrium vulgare crispum robustum, Athyrium filix-f<^mina Girdlestonei 

 (another stiff problem to cultivators), Athyrium filix-fcemina proteum, of Clapham, 

 1 Jistrea paleacea crispa gracilis, and crispa cristata of Lyell. The sensation ot 

 1867 was Polypodium vulgare Cornubiense, found, as so many good things have 

 been found, by a comparatively ignorant man, but brought out and introduced to 

 the world by others who have received perhaps sometimes more than their share of 

 credit. This wonderful fern, as you all know, is not without its bad habits. 



rotundatum ; Grey's This grand fern 



particular about 

 hands of skilful 



