August 13 



1898 



GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



523 



ARU 



METALLICA. 



o in the comprehensive and admirably grown collection of 

 IM '/ ' D ni!ributedb? A- B. Freeman-Mitford, Esq., C.B., to the meet- 

 bamb fThVRovTHorticultural Society, held on July 26th, were several 

 '"^ 5 rare species which deservedly obtained recognition from the 

 new f r«mrnitt>e These new forms are enumerated and described in 

 ?? ,.nKNERS''MAGAZiNE of July 30th, andwe - — " 



the GARDENERS 



haracteristic figure of Arundi 

 u •— remarkable for 



give herewith a 

 metallica, a dwarf growing and 

 a m » secies remarKaoic iui its hardiness, which received an 

 jl tnmt As so well shown in our illustration, it is somewhat 

 a *Vr L character to A. palmata and A. Veitchi ; and it has stout 

 S S with *5 gras -greer 1 leaves, about an inch and a-half in breadth, 

 from e^nt to nfne inches in length and acutely-pointed. The most 

 lortant characteristic of this form is perhaps its hardy constitution, 

 Zd in proof of its adaptability for cultivation in districts where the 

 Smatic conditions are not specially favourable to bamboos, Mr. 

 Freeman-Mitford informs us that in the gardens of his residence— 

 lhtsfordPark,Moreton-in-the-Marsh, the leaves do not become browned 

 during the winter, as in the case of the majority of the species, and that 



Arundinaria metallica. 



^ms, A. Mlmaio — i*T*V ,'V m TV m W1 J a P an > wnere tne two closely allied 



^e P weatht A - Veit , ch '' are unable t0 exist in consequence of 



weather experienced at certain seasons of the year. 



issued a ciSular f^J Committee of the Society for the Protection of 

 l^'authorhy C w iS f k U glDg landowners, shooting tenants, and farmers 

 L** °n their land aml£ ■ ^ ° tht " l ° prevent the free destruction 



fron hi t„°] St. ;ataBl * ." should PTOliiy 1- only 



om their abundance m any particular district! may Co real 

 Onions for Se a d 



Jjjuned diverse vari^"?!" 0 "'"" 1 ," P la ? tin B a dozen bulbs of ne;lrl X ;i s 

 lnsc «s to work ' ^u 1 ' ^al, and crimson, all in a lump, just 



» wrong th nV but i m 1 h t lhem ,! n lh£ • Iah0Ur of ^ter-crossing, I may 



SiS" 0f ies^Ued vLS on S f Ceitain tHat , an - V results from 



tStLr 0 * 0 °r yellow J that goeS on >' earl >'- Any one variety of 



C^that may termed SSL™ « 1 ? be " l »P ed . wi " alw ^ s S-e two or 

 illJ' Sood of names > T J >' et a " from th e same stock. What, 



F 



H 



SCOTLAN 



as 

 a 



fco R tfanTL S H P S ° f * hun ! in * in the Hi S hland * and elsewhere in 

 bcot and and its results, merits, I venture to think, a brief descriptive 



article. Making Aberfeldy my first stopping place I found, as had 



t P hnnl 0 htL y . d ° ne ' 1 WaS in the ccnt " ° f a ^d Anting distrkt, 



though the range of species was more limited than in our south- western 

 counties of England, the Hartstongue and Polystichum angulare beins 

 nonexistent, or, at any rate, so rare as to be undiscoverable, which is 

 probably a safer conclusion to arrive at. Lastreas filix-mas, pseudo-mas, 

 montana, and dilatata were in profusion ; Athyrium filix fcemina held 

 her own amongst the male ferns as doughtily as any new woman among 

 mankind. Polypodiums, vulgare, dryopteris, and phegopteris, were 

 also well to the fore, Cystopteris fragilis peeped out from many a stone 

 dyke or rocky crevice. Asplenium trichomanes and A. adiantum nigrum 

 occasiona ly were plentiful, and A. viride lurked in damp nooks in the 

 rocky walls of out-of-the-way glens, as well as high up on the hills in the 

 open. I olystichum aculeatum was not plentiful, but cropped up un- 

 expectedly as fine solitary specimens here and there, and in some of the 

 glens made a fair show, hanging down from crevices in the precipitous 

 rock walls, with great bunches of old and dead fronds pendulous beneath 

 them. P. lonchitis, the holly fern, is rarely obtained in situ without a 

 climb of between two thousand and three thousand feet, but I was con- 

 ducted by a friend, under a vow of discretion, to a populous habitat of 

 this fine fern, situated certainly below one thousand four hundred feet 

 above sea level, and growing there in profusion, and to the full size of 

 eighteen inches or more in height, its bright green fronds sticking 

 up boldly through the heather, so that at a distance I took them for robust 

 fertile fronds of Blechnum spicant, which, by the way, is also one of the 

 plentiful ferns of the district. 



Hunting, of course, for varieties, I came across a curiously-partial 

 congested form, all the fronds having most of the pinna: pinched as it 

 were together. By the roadside, close to this habitat, Botrychium 

 lunaria, or the moonwort, was found as tiny plants, under an inch high, 

 growing in dry soil among short grass, where my conductor informed me 

 he had known it to exist for thirty years. On my return from this trip a 

 visitor showed me a plant he had just gathered close to the Tay Bridge 

 at Aberfeldy, but on searching for another I failed to hit upon one, and 

 got instead a remarkably pretty plant of one of the plantain weeds, each 

 leaf margined with pure white. As the trip to the aforesaid holly domain 

 involved some miles of road, fringed more or less all the way with ferns, I 

 need hardly say that a four-mile speed was not maintained, especially since 

 no less than three promising finds rewarded my investigations, viz., a con- 

 gested form of Lastrea montana, a variegated form of L. pseudo-mas, and 

 a crispate specimen of the same species ; both these last in the same stone 

 dyke. The day previous, wandering by the Moness water, I found, and 

 took home in my handkerchief, a remarkably fine specimen of the Prickly 

 Shield fern, the fine points of which were much appreciated when I 

 handed the bundle over for inspection, and a hedgehog rolled out upon 

 the carpet, after being dropped like a hot potato on account of the points 

 in question. L. montana truncata, with its square and thorny tips, fell 

 twice to my lot at Aberfeldy, and twice again at Strathblane, my next 

 stopping place. A very large plant of this variety I installed in my host's 

 garden at Aberfeldy, and named it Auld Hornie, as a fitting and descrip- 

 tive local cognomen. On the Kenmore road I found L. filix-mas. medio- 

 deficiens, a form with all the central pinnae reduced to knob?. Considering, 

 however that I assiduously hunted for more than a week I came again to 

 the conclusion, as I had done on previous occasions, that the ferns are not 

 very sportive in the district, my M bag " being confined to the finds already 

 cited. At Strathblane, where in previous years Athyrium filix-fcemina 

 revol'vens, deltrideum, and medio-deficiens had fallen to my lot, I was more 

 fortunate, two very handsome forms of Lastrea filix-mas rewarding my 

 search, one extremely iolious and perfectly barren, and the other with 

 lanceolate pinnae. These, a ramose and a serrate Blechnum, a very folious 

 Lastrea montana, and a curious form of the same species, with some fronds 

 splashed with yellow, and other fronds entirely lemon-coloured, consti- 

 tuted no bad reward for my pains. . ■■ 



While staying here I profited by my nearness to tne spot where that 

 wonderful lady fern A. f.-f. Victoria: was found to drive over to view A and 

 after seeing two grand specimens of the original find at huchanan 

 Castle Mr Crosbie, gardener to the Duke of Montrose, accompanied us 

 to the Tspot Fortun? favoured me for though thirty-five years have 

 elapsed since the discovery, Mr. Buchanan, a farmer residing close by, 

 who was present when it was dug up, was still to the fore, and joining 

 our party, led us to the identical place. It originated on a grassy bank 

 bv the road side, and when found was a fair sized specimen with several 

 crowns M - Cosh, a student from Edinburgh, was getting over the 



to Mr Buchanan, who was cutting the grass in the vicinity, and asked 

 Kmto fake ca r e Lnd not cut down the fern, and, contrary to tradition, 

 n£rh*Me* that it remained there two years before it was removed, 

 onl a Z?o*V^, its rarity being fully appreciated at the outset. 

 One division went to the Bridge of Allan, and another to Buchanan Castle. 

 Some eTterpr^ expressed in the autumn a strong wish to 



borne en * e J^ { \ fron d of so unique a plant, and sent some 



have an impression 01 a i i ..1^ ; in ciKn,rtin,lv srati- 



|5JL^..^« thelr'trfj ft -i.°"" d <?- °™ *. W than Ld, ,he a'dheren, spores. 



^^^"^^n^ I t n S 1 r?^ 7 ' ^now^unyTecogS 



t^S'S' 1 Uota modern exh Lf n St ° Ck " S SCed wUl P rod ««. That is 

 WM„ '« a ? so snlenH;H.:. " e,lhlbltloI1 . re quirements, whv lar^ hnlhcar* „™ 



That 



^""•l* fc^-S" T doubt to some extent due to 



«d. of course, the best keeping bulbs. 



A D 



This is t£ ? hi stay Tobtained direct from headquarters, and on the very 

 ♦ ■♦ Jif ■ and is I think, sufficiently circumstantial to merit chronicling. 

 SP may' add ^tbat at present there is no lady fern near the site of the 

 a a l\ tmn of T nseudo-mas fringes the dyke foot, and on the other 

 sSe ofthe 1 dy'ke theS ,of the district are" fairly plentiful. If variety 

 he induced bv environment, there must have been something peculiarly 

 subtle hert to lead to such a sport, for, as is obvious, no specially peculiar 

 conditions are visible at aU to the^. ^ ^ ^ V>M-H _ 



