88 
HAEDY PEENS. 
curious varieties of Scolopendrium. I found some 
with tlie ends tufted and fringed — some with the 
margins crimped, and the spore-cases diverging 
from a line running all round the outer edge of the 
frond. In cultivation, this latter Fern has pro- 
gressed into stiff narrow fronds most curiously 
crimped, and the upper end divided into several 
forked tongues. I found several Scolopendriums 
approaching to undulatum, but they have not 
altered so much as the more monstrous forms. I 
have a little theory about Scolopendriums, the 
truth of which I have tested till it might almost be 
called a fact. When I have found a Fern slightly 
fringed at the sides, and have j)lanted it by the 
side of a true marginatum, the inferior Fern 
shortly acquires the habit of its neighbour, and 
gradually becomes transformed into the likeness of 
its peculiar growth. 
The transformation of Ferns is exceedingly 
curious. I have for some time been watching a 
fine plant of Asplenium viride, which is slowly 
becoming divided into two or three forks at the end 
