SELBORNIANA 
227 
in connection therewith. Certain Welsh valleys were selected as the localities 
closest to London where the specimens required could he found. They proved 
to be e.xceplionally rich in the mateiial recjuired, quantities being secured, the 
approximate value of which is estimated at ;^40.” 
Some time ago, on our expressing our apprehension lest the 
collecting of wild specimens for our schools might lead to 
extermination, we were assured that none but common species 
would be so collected, and that every care would be taken to 
obviate such a result. We hoped, also, that the expensively-con- 
ducted system of cultivation of specimens would soon render all 
such collecting unnecessary. This, it seems, has not been the case. 
Surely but a comparatively small number of London County 
Council scholars are in a position to profit by the study of the 
Cyyptogamia. As Algas are not well represented in Welsh valleys. 
Fungi are mostly perishable. Lichens are somewhat difficult 
subjects for study, and Mosses are not in the most appropriate con- 
dition for collecting in “ the holiday period,” we fear we must con- 
clude, with the friend who sends us this paragraph, that it means 
forty pounds’ worth of ferns, with, perhaps, some club-mosses, 
and possibly, alas, some quill- worts. Unless these depredations 
have been spread over many valleys, their consequences may 
be serious ; and, as our correspondent suggests, if generations 
of students are to be supplied with fresh material for the 
microscopic examination of sori, &c., the expeditions of this 
despoiler of our country’s beauties may very probably become 
annual. This most regrettable procedure is, moreover, quite 
unnecessary, since any specimens really needed could easily be 
procured from nurserymen with a stipulation that only spore- 
raised plants should be supplied. While many are becoming 
convinced that legislative interference is necessary to restrain 
the private collector, it is obviously even more essential that 
steps must be taken to check such wholesale destruction as this 
on the part of public bodies. 
A British Fern Society. — Although the British Pterido- 
logical Society established at Kendal has done good service as 
a centre of the British Fern cult for many years, there is no 
doubt that its purely local character militates against its wider 
usefulness, and that now that our beautiful, and in many cases 
unique, British ferns are becoming popular, a society on a more 
extended basis is desirable. The object of such a society should 
embrace a periodical publication describing and illustrating new 
finds and fresh developments in cultural selection, and also 
providing such general data as may assist the amateur in grow- 
ing and propagating, and acquiring a knowledge of what is being 
done generally in this particular direction. In the United States 
there are several societies devoted to indigenous ferns and their 
varietal forms, and periodical publications are issued with con- 
tributions from inside and outside sources, which are very 
interesting. In Great Britain, the only periodical issued is the 
brief annual report of the above-named society, although the 
