December 24, 1898. 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



A Variable British Fern. 



Mr. W. H. Phillips, F.R.H.S., of Holywood, co. Down, contributes to the 

 annual report of the British Pteridological Society a paper on that highly 

 proliferous British fern, Polystichum angulare proliferum. 



Polystichum angulare proliferum, observes Mr. Phillips, is the name so long in 

 use for the series of ferns which have been divided into acutilobe, divisilobe, multi- 

 lobe, and conspicuilobe. 



In Moore's "Nature Printed Ferns," printed in 1859, the first discovery is 

 credited to Choules, who is said variously to have found it at Wimbledon, Surrey, 

 or in Devonshire. It was, however, at Kew Gardens, and distributed from there. 

 Mr. Wollaston more recently found his form at Ottery St. Mary, and Mr. Jackson 

 his at Barnstaple, This last is probably the form now called oxyphyllum. 



Mr. Newman, in his " History of British Ferns," 1854, page 119, mentions 

 only two varieties of angulare. The first does not bear on my subject, but the second 

 variety, he says, 44 is still more remarkable." After describing it, he continues : 

 " I believe this plant is very familiar to cultivators. The specimen given to me 

 by Mr. Pamplin was from a plant cultivated by Mr. Choules, formerly gardener to 

 Lady Guildford ; it was found in a hedge near Wimbledon, and is preserved in 

 the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, and I possess a second, from Mr. Wollaston, 

 gathered by himself near Ambleside. My notice of the denser pinnules has induced 

 cultivators to call it 4 angustatum.' A third form has been found in Ireland by 

 Mr. Kinahan. In this strange and abnormal form the fronds are of small size, 

 and all the divisions are atrophied or sctiform." He then goes on to say, 99 There 

 is a property possessed by this fern which is common to many exotic species, the 

 production of new plants from bulbils at the axil of the pinnae or pinnules." This 

 state of the plant was fully described by Mr. Kinahan, under the name viviparum, 

 in a paper read before the Dublin Natural History Society, 1852 ; but was at that 

 time very familiar to botanists residing near London, and Mr. Wollaston had 

 called my attention to it long previously to the report of Mr. Kinahan's paper. I 

 do not know of the existence of this form ; it does not appear in any catalogue. 

 "Hooker's British Ferns," 1861, says "Aspidium angulare was published as a 

 Hungarian plant by Wildenow more than halfa-century ago, and it was not until 

 the appearance of the last volume of the 4 English Flora,' in 1828, that it was 

 recognised as a British plant." Hooker's "Species Filicum," 1846, makes no 

 mention of proliferum. " Ferps British and Foreign," by J. Smith, of Kew, 1879, 



just mentions proliferum. 



Mr. P. Neill Fraser, of Edinburgh, in his " List of British Ferns," compiled 

 in 1867, gives the names of eleven varieties, a few only of which seem to be 

 generally known and whose names are found in recent lists — Alchini, angustatum, 

 Crawfordk^, foliosum Ivery* Footi, Hardringi, Holeanse, Marshalli, Padleyanum, 

 tenue Clapham, Wollastoni. A. Stansfield and Sons' catalogue 10, 1875, has th . e 

 form proliferum, and Alchini, Crawfordianum, Footi, Henleyiv, Holeanse, Lyelli, 

 Wollastoni. Sim, of Footscray, does not seem to have had many, or I should 

 find them in my list of purchases. Backhouse, of York, catalogued in 1885 four 

 varieties, and in 1893 f° ur varieties, all the same — Crawfordise, Footi, Henleyse, 

 Holeame. Mr. Druery, in " Choice British Ferns," 1888, page 128, gives a 

 selection of the best forms with descriptions. These are : divisilobes, four ; d. 

 cristatum, one ; d. plumosum, one ; multilobum, one ; proliferum, five. F. W. and 

 H. Stansfield's catalogues contain : acutilobum, four in 1885 and J 888 ; proliferum, 

 nine in 1885 aDC * four in 1888 ; divisilobum, two in 1885 anc * twenty-three in 

 1888. Stansfield's Catalogue, No. 7, contains : acutilobum, nine ; proliferum, 

 none ; divisilobum, twenty-seven ; divisilobum plumosum, six. Birkenhead's : 

 acutilobum, two ; divisilobum, eleven ; plumosum, one. Lowe's 99 Nature 

 Printed Ferns," 1874, mentions only about four forms. Lowe's "Handbook," 

 1891, enumerates: acutilobes, twenty-nine; divisilobes, thirty- one ; d. 

 plumosum, nine. 



About 1884 the discovery had been made that ferns could be crossed in the 

 prothalloid condition by mixing spores of different varieties and sowing thickly. 

 This gave a great stimulus to the raising of new composite varieties, with the 

 result that the number of varieties recorded in books and catalogues had greatly 

 increased. Mr. Lowe, in his "Fern Growing," 1895, : 41 The many and 

 varied ways in which ferns can be raised are of great interest, and should make 

 the subject one of great interest to botanists. The numerous distinct and hand- 

 some varieties of the British species have kept up an interest with horticulturists ; 

 the advance bwing to hybrid varieties has been vastly greater than by wild finds ; 

 the former have been rapidly increased, whilst the latter have decreased ; the fern 

 explorer who used to be laden with new varieties now returns empty-handed, and 

 it is only whilst we have new fields to explore that we may hope to obtain some- 

 thing new. Many of those who formerly employed their leisure in exploration 

 now find it more profitable to devote their time to the raising of crossed varieties. " 



; Mr. Carbonell raised divisilobum, grandiceps, stipitatum, and other fine forms 

 of divisilobum. In 1885 Mr, Carbonell gave me spores frc 

 and divisilobes, from which I raised some very good forms. 



The finders of acutilobes include Wollaston, Wills, Foot, Phillips, Gray, 

 Rake, Mrs. Hartley, Moly, Elworthy, and Jones ; and the raisers are Wollaston, 

 Allchtn, Jones, and Lowe. 



The finders of divisilobes are Padley, Wills, Moly, Phillips, and Seymour ; 

 and the raisers Carbonell, Jones, Ivery, Moly, Pearson, Bagg, Plimsoll, and 

 Stansfield. 



The raisers of divisilobum plumosum are Jones, Pearson, and Fox. 



The finds of proliferum are: 1852, Wollaston and Elworthy ; i860, Rake ; 

 1861, Iloleanum, Crawfordiae ; 1865, Gray; 1866, Padley, Phillips (three in 

 Somerset) ; .1869, Henley (seven in Devon) ; 1870, Seymour (one in Hants) ; 

 1874, Wilk* M °ly> Phillips (five in Ireland) ; 187s, Moly ; 1876, Wills, Phillips ; 

 1888, King. 



The varieties raised comprise acutilobum cruciatum, a. grandiceps Wollaston, 

 a. Scopa: Lowe, divisilobum cristatum Jones, d. cristatum Ivery, d. deltoideum, 

 d. dumetum Jones, d. dumosum Jones, d. grandiceps Carbonell, d. multifidum 

 Jones, d. polydactylum Jones, divisilobum plumosum densum, d. p. Baldwini, 

 d. p. laxum, d. p. Esplan, d. p. Pearson. 



One of the most interesting chapters in fern evolution and crossing ia that of 

 the divisilobum plumosum section, by Colonel Jones and Mr. Fox. Mr. Lowe 

 thus describes it in his "Fifty Years of Fern Growing": " Decompositum 

 splendens has great interest attached to it, on account of its anomalous seedlings 

 with much divided superb fronds, for up to the present time there is rio know- 

 ledge of any of the seedlings bearing any resemblance to its parent. A short 

 history of this fern is desirable on account of some confusion that exists as regards 

 iis origin. The honour of discovering this fern has been erroneously stated by 

 Mr. Druery to belong to Colonel Jones. This is an excusable mistake, because 

 two ferns now bearing this name were found. A variety called decompositum was 

 found in I>evonshire by Mr. Moule, and a seedling raised from it by Colonel Jones 

 was named decompositum, and the plant is not bulbiferous, nor dues it produce 



varieties like the plumoso-divisilobum. A somewhat similar variety has been 

 found in Ireland by W. H. Phillips. However, the true or original decompositum 

 splendens was found by Mr. James Moly, in Devon, 1875, and received the name 

 from Mr. Wollaston. Colonel Jones gathered spores from this plant m Mr. 

 Moly's garden, and these were sown in 1878 by Mr. E. K Fox, though the 

 latter was not aware till long afterwards that they were not from Colonel 

 Jones's seedling. The anomalous character of the seedlings raised from these 

 spores was so marked that Mr. Fox was unwilling to credit decompositum 

 splendens with being the parent. Colonel Jones therefore made a special visit to 

 Mr. Moly for additional spores, and was at the same time presented with a divi- 

 sion of the plant. In 1892 Mr. Moly's plant produced a bulbil, which he presented 

 to Mr. Lowe, and this accounts for the seedlings of decompositum splendens 

 being more or less bulbiferous. The second sowing of these spores by Mr. Fox 

 confirmed the fact that the former anomalous seedlings owed their parentage to 

 decompositum splendens. Amongst the first seedlings were three, somewhat 

 similar in character, yet distinct from each other. These Colonel Jones named 

 plumoso-divisilobum laxum, p.-d. robustum, and p.-d. densum, all very fine 

 varieties, the last mentioned being the most beautiful, in fact as beautiful as Todea 

 superba. They are all sterile,* and require propagation by bulbils or divisions 

 As regards the propagation by bulbils, plumoso-div. densum has bulbils that pro- 

 duce very different varieties from the parent. Colonel Jones raised two plants 

 from bulbils in 1886 and 1888, gave one to Mr. Lowe and one to Mr. J. L. 

 Baldwin. They were not only distinct from the parent, but quite distinct from 

 each other. One was called imbricatum, and the other Baldwini, and is perhaps 

 the most beautiful British fern yet known. From the second sowing by Mr. Fox 

 there was only one that was very distinct ; this is called gracile." I have in culti- 

 vation, 1898 -acutilobum, 29; divisilobum, 36; d. plumosum, 5. 



Polystichum angulare proliferum Wollaston (Woll.), found in 1852, is a 

 true acutilobe, frond elongate, deltoid, tripinnate, in its best character has only 

 two pairs of bulbjlte seated in the axils of the lowest pair of pinna?, pinnules 

 acute. No British fern exceeds this in beauty, and probably none has figured so 

 prominently in exhibitions ; it is not to be wondered at, therefore, that itshould 

 have taken more than one person to find it . Mr. Wollaston relates that himself 

 and the late Rev. W. Gardiner, then curate of Ottery St. Mary, during a ramble 

 in that neighbourhood being brought suddenly by a bend in the lane face to face 

 with it were at the same moment (it was then a large plant, and in true character) 

 transfixed with astonishment. Mr. Wollaston was, however, the first to recover 

 his presence of mind, and the plant will ever deservedly bear the name of the first 

 of British fern hunters. 



The name 1 i proliferum " was first given to a plant found by S. Choules, one 

 of the Kew gardeners. Mr. Wollaston states that an impression prevaiied that at 

 one time it was exotic, probably from its differing so much from other then known 

 British ferns. Dr: Allchin writes that in 1852 this plant was growing in the out- 

 door fernery at Kew, marked "P. a. dissectum," and afterwards angustatum, 

 and it was from spores of this that he raised the very beautiful proliferous form 

 that bear*, his name, which was far more so than any that have since been found 

 or raised. Choules's plant being the first to show its character was named by Mr. 

 Moore " proliferum." Subsequently other] proliferous forms were found, and 

 named proliferum Wollastoni, Footi, Crawfordioe, Holeanse, Henleyi, Moulei, &c. 

 As all these partook more or less of the finely cut character of the original pro- 

 liferum, and no other proliferous form was then known, it was thought by some 

 that the proliferous character was more or less the habit of that class, and that it 

 was confined to it; subsequent discoveries, however, proved that in neither 

 respect was this the case, the name therefore lost much of its appropriateness. It 

 is true that in a general way the finely cut varieties have a more general tendency 

 than others to be proliferous, but it is now known that this habit is very general 

 among varieties of angulare, and is sometimes seen even in the normal form. 



Mr. Padley writes that he has generally found that the ferns having a hard 

 woody rachis are the ones most proliferous, such as acutilobe, multilobe, lineare, 

 &c. Forms of brachiato-cristatum are nearly always proliferous, and in some 

 cases not only near the brachiations. Mr. Wills's pulchermum and some forms 

 of revolvens are proliferous, and a variety of cristatum, found by the late Dr. 

 Moore, in Ireland, has often bulbils extending halfway up the frond. It is also 

 now known that there are varieties which in every important particular are iden- 

 tical in character with the proliferous forms and yet they are not proliferous, or 

 only slightly so. It would seem that the proliferous habit is both too general and 

 too arbitrary in its appearance to entitle it to give a name to any class of varieties. 

 Nor is the name at all descriptive of the very marked character of the class to 

 which these, perhaps the mo*t beautiful of all the forms of angulare, belong. The 

 variation of character among these finely divided varieties is known to be so great 

 that they can no longer be mingled together without considerable confusion of 

 ideas. Mr, Wollaston was the first to meet this difficulty by a sub-division of the 

 class of finely cut varieties into three classes : Multilobum, an excess of decompo- 

 situm the whole plant being more or lese tripinnate, but the division of the 

 pinnules or pinnulets more or less abnormally rounded. Acutilobum, tripinnate 

 all the divisions of the fronds acute, anterior and posterior pinnules nearly the 

 same length. Divisilobum, tripinnate, the same as acutilobum, except that the 

 anterior and posterior pinnules are of unequal length, the latter far longer, and the 

 divisions altogether more highly developed. A well-grown plant is sub quadri- 

 pinnate, or even quadri pinnate. 



By the almost unanimous consent of angulare hunters and cultivators Mr. 

 Wollaston's arrangement has been adopted, and the name proliferum is no longer 

 used, except as an adjunct to denote that either such multilobes, acutilobes, ^c. f 

 have* such a habit, or such as have long been called by that name. Thus the 

 original proliferum and Mr. Wollaston's, are proliferous acutilobes ; Miss Craw- 

 ford's, Mrs. Holes', and Mrs. Henley's are proliferous divisilobes. 



Mr. Padley, whose experience in this class of varieties was perhaps unrivalled, 

 and who studied the matter with at least as much interest and care as anyone, was 

 in favour of Mr. Wollaston's arrangement, as far as It went, but he still retained 

 the name conspicuilobe as descriptive of the varieties which do not quite come up 

 to multilobes or acutilobes, though evidently partaking of the same 99 gentle 

 blood." Mr. Padley wrote : 94 With me there are two principal divisions of the 

 varieties whose pinnules are much divided : the tripinnate or decompositum class ; 

 and the acutilobe class (comprehending conspicuilobum, acutilobum, and divisi- 

 lobum), the main feature in the former being that the pinnules are more frondose, 

 and in the acutilobes more acute and narrow." 



Multilobum, or, as he preferred to call it, equilobum, seems to lean to the two 

 divisions — one section to decompositum, the other to acutilobum. My order of 

 the more finely cut varieties is conspicuilobum, multilobum, acutilobum, and divi- 

 silobum. Some people have cast doubts on conspicuilobum, but I consider it a 

 distinct variety. 



* Note l»y Mr. Druery : Spu 

 plant* ihcrcffom. 



arc occasionally produced, and I have raided several typical 



