20 
CHOICE BRITISH FERISTS. 
wild, and quite solitary in their peculiarities, no intermediate 
form between them and the common having rewarded the 
most careful search, either at the time or subsequently. 
We are thus driven to the conclusion that such forms are 
the direct offspring of one of the common Ferns in whose 
company they were growing when found. The two most 
striking varieties of Lady Fern (Athyrium Filix^oemina^), 
Victorice and acrocladon, are examples of this; f and ^ so, ^ of 
course, are all the entirely barren forms, such as the many 
wild finds of the frilled Hartstongue (Scolopendrium yulgare, 
yar. crispum), \th.e Welsh Polypody {Polyp odium vulgare, var. 
camhricum), and others, which, presumably, must have 
originated from fertile — i.e., spore-bearing forms — the only 
alternative being bud-sports — i.e., plants varying from the 
parents originating from a bud on roots or frond instead of 
from a spore, a thing which occasionally happens in Ferns as 
in other plants, but which does not alter the case one jot. 
The subtle and wonderful change which must take place 
in the mother-cell, whether of spore or of bud, is just as 
striking and incomprehensible, especially when we consider, 
not only that the resulting plant may assume a totally 
different plan of growth, but is henceforth endowed with 
the power of exact reproduction of itself, with all its pecu- 
liarities, through its spores — if it be fertile — just as constantly 
as its ancestors, for ages untold, had reproduced themselves. 
This constancy may be regarded as the rule with all very 
marked and symmetrical forms, but there are some most 
striking exceptions, in which, though the plants retain the 
abnormal form, their progeny revert more or less to the 
common. We have ourselves raised a very robust and 
heavily-crested form of Hard Fern {Blechnum Spicantf) from 
a wild find of similar character but smaller growth. Strange 
to say, the sowing from which this splendid plant originated 
was so nearly a failure that only the one plant resulted, 
which, as stated, surpasses the parent; yet when spores of 
this more marked variety were sown, fully 90 per cent, were 
Syn. Asplenium Filix-foemina. 
t Syn. Lomaria Spicant. 
