104 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
February 8,1894 
through the quarter-inch sieve ; this being pressed to a smooth 
surface is then ready for sowing any but the very smallest seeds 
upon. 
Seeds of Asters, Stocks, Marguerites, Cyclamens, Dianthus, 
Pyrethrums, Nemesia strumosa, Nicotiana affinis, and many others 
of a like nature, if scattered thinly and evenly upon soil thus 
prepared, only require to be just covered with the fine soil—which 
should be pressed gently with a board—to complete the operation. 
A moderate watering through a fine rose should then be given, 
some squares of glass placed over the pans or boxes, and a cover¬ 
ing of paper or moss put on the glass. Yineries, forcing 
houses, or frames placed over hotbeds, are excellent positions 
in which to place newly sown seeds of the above descriptions. 
Begonias, Calceolarias, and Lobelias require somewhat different 
treatment. In addition to the preparations already described, some 
of the finest of the three heaps of prepared soil should be pressed 
upon the surface, and the whole of the material moistened before the 
seeds are sown. An excellent way to do this is to hold the pan in 
warm water up to the rim till the water rises from the holes at the 
bottom, and gradually moistens the soil up to the surface. As 
soon as superfluous water has drained away, if a mixture of 
powdered charcoal and sharp sand is sprinkled upon the soil it 
will do much towards keeping it sweet. Scatter the seeds evenly 
on the surface, place a layer of moss round the inside rim of 
the pan, and let it rise slightly above it, so that when a square of 
glass is laid over the whole the inside is fairly air-tight. This 
prevents the soil drying, and it is important that water is 
not again required till the seeds have germinated. The Begonias 
and Lobelias should, if possible, be placed in a forcing or propa¬ 
gating house, where there is a good bottom heat, the Calceolarias 
under a hand-light behind a north wall (of course I refer to her¬ 
baceous Calceolarias, which are sown in the summer), shade 
in each instance being given till the seeds have germinated. 
Primulas and Cinerarias will succeed well under almost the same 
conditions, with the exception that the surface soil need not be 
quite so fine, and in the case of the latter I prefer to cover the 
•seeds. 
Seeds of Acacia lophantha, Ricinus, Grevillea robusta. Maize, 
and others having a similarly hard testa ought to be soaked in 
water for twenty-four hours before sowing. A good method of 
sowing is to dibble them in the soil an inch asunder ; they then 
feel the check of transplanting but little. Sow thinly is perhaps 
a somewhat hackneyed term, but it is also one which should be 
constantly remembered and acted upon by all who aim at pro¬ 
ducing sturdy plants and abundant crops.—D. W. 
(To be continued.) 
DECORATIYE BRITISH FERNS. 
The Lady Fern, 
{Continued from page 33.") 
The Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-foemina) occupies a somewhat 
anomalous specific position, since the scientific botanist and the British 
Fern specialist are hopelessly at issue regarding the family to which it 
belongs, the former classing it with the Spleenworts, which the latter 
cannot find it in his mind to do for many reasons. The Spleenworts, for 
instance, are evergreen, and of hard or stout texture, singularly free 
as a genua from variation, though our native species are somewhat 
sportive within limited lines, and finally they affect well-drained 
positions, such as walls, rocks, and sloping banks. The Lady Fern, on 
the other hand, is perfectly deciduous, of soft and delicate texture, 
extremely variable, and revels in the dampest possible habitats, such as 
boggy places and banks of streams, and likes, in fact, to have its toes in 
the water, as it were. The only feature even remotely justifying its 
association with the Spleenworts is the fructification; but even here the 
spore heaps lie in short curved lines covered with a more or less ragged 
indusium, while the Spleenworts’ typical fruitage lies in long straight 
lines covered with a regular indusium, so that it is only in some of the 
small growing Asplenia, such as A. fontanum, where the sori have no 
room to form lines, that any possible resemblance can be traced. This 
feature plays, however, so small a part in the decorative aspects of our 
subject, that having entered our protest we leave it. 
It is, of course, the extreme variability of the Lady Fern with which 
we have to do, and this is such that no Fern in the world, not even the 
wonderful Polystichums, which will form the subject of another article 
and have yielded a large number of finds, can vie with it in range of 
eccentricity. The Harts-tongee (Scolopendrium vulgare) also may 
outstrip it in number, for the name is simply legion of its varietal 
forms; but the Lady Fern stands apart in its production of such unique 
forms as A. f.-f. Victorise and A. f.-f. Frizellise, with its tribe of typical 
sports raised therefrom under culture, while A. f.-f. acrocladon and its 
progeny rank as peculiar to the species in the extent and fine 
comminution of their branching, which, commencing at the base, 
repeatedly continues until we behold a sort of emerald sponge resting 
upon the soil instead of a normal plume of feathery foliage d la 
shuttlecock. 
In its native and most congenial habitats— i.e., in some secluded 
glen fenced in by umbrageous foliage which at once tempers the 
wind to its ferny denizens and provides the requisite shade, 
while the air is constantly humid with the evaporation from 
the saturated mass of leaf mould which constitutes the soil, the 
Lady Fern forms dense shoulder-high clumps and attains its fullest 
development. On the other hand, in the damp atmosphere of our 
western counties, such as Devon, Dorset or Somerset, we may find the 
chinks on the earthen dykes, faced with stone, filled with seedlings. 
The roadsides, too, wherever there is running water may be lined with 
members of the family, and afford, like the other habitats cited, a 
happy hunting ground for the seeker of varieties. The veriest 
beginner will speedily find that variability is the rule rather than the 
exception, I do not mean to say marked but minor variations occurring 
in some places to such an extent that it is hard to find two plants alike. 
Colour, habit of growth, size and mode of division, all vary so that it is 
difficult to find a really normal form agreeing with that figured by the 
best authorities. 
In my own experience, however, good finds are scarce, hence the 
greater number of the varieties existing have been raised under culture 
from wild finds, the spores of which have sported again and again. In 
Mr. E. J. Lowe’s list of British Ferns, out of 313 forms catalogued, only 
ninety-six are described as found, while in the Shield Ferns 251 out of 
428 varieties are wild finds, a much higher percentage. Both in 1891 
and 1892, however, I was fortunate enough to find two very good 
forms indeed. In the first case I was on a visit to a relative in Scot¬ 
land where I was practically house-bound by a sprained ankle 
incurred by a slip on the Perthshire hills while hunting for Holly Fern 
(P. lonchitis). My hunting ground was therefore circumscribed to a 
few hundred yards round the house, which was situated on the side of 
a hill in Strathblane, down which numerous streamlets made their way 
through as many Fern-clad glens to the river below. One evening 1 
hobbled a little way up one of these, and while still within hail of the 
house I suddenly espied a most beautifully curled frond peeping out 
from under a large plant of the common Lady Fern, and on lifting 
the latter a five-crowned Lady Fern was seen with all its fronds 
symmetrically rolled inwards on the tips, which bring down spirally- 
like ringlets, while the side divisions were rolled in in the same fashion, 
bearing spiral tips and forming each frond nearly into a tube, these 
side divisions or pinnse, moreover, being curved into semicircles. My 
delight can be imagined at this discovery, for at once I recognised it 
as an absolutely new form in the family. I immediately looked round 
for others, and about 20 yards down the stream espied a second, in 
which, however, the side divisions were flat instead of curved, and 
presumably a seedling. This form was at once christened A. f.f. 
revolvens, and in the course of 1892 yielded a number of perfectly 
typical youngsters. 
The next find was in Co. Clare on the Shannon shore, where I went 
out with the young son and daughter of my hostess. Coming to a deep, 
dry drain running through a plantation, we saw its sides lined with the 
Hard Fern (Blechnum spicant) and dropped down into it to investigate 
them. Presently one of the children, who were walking on the brink, 
made a remark I did not catch, so I pushed the upper growth of 
Fern aside to hear what it was, and lo I at that identical spot on the 
bank was a splendidly tasselled dwarf Lady Fern, abort 9 inches high, 
congested, and a thoroughbred, which I should inevitably have missed 
but for the half-heard remark. A more careful search all round failed 
to find a companion plant. I trust to be pardoned a seeming egotism in 
this description of my own finds, as they convey, as I desire to do, a 
tangible idea of such good fortune as I hope many of your readers 
may enjoy should they follow my example on their spare days and 
holidays. 
The two chief types of variation into which the Lady Fern has sported 
are the plumose or extra feathery, and the cristate or tasselled, Asides 
which, as we have seen, there are certain unique types peculiar to the 
species. It is the plumose forms which in their highest developments 
are the most likely to please the critical judge of vegetative beauty, and 
it is certainly in this section that the greatest strides have been effected 
by means of selective culture. The chief wdld finds of this class are 
A. f.-f. plumosum {Horsfall)^ found in Yorkshire ; A. f.-f. plumosum 
{^Axminster'), found near Axminster ; A. f.-f. plumosum found in 
Dorsetshire ; A. f.-f. plumosum {Barnes), found near Milntborpe. Of 
these the first named would seem to be the parent of the wonderful A. f.-f. 
Kalothrix (beautiful hair), of which, however, an identical form was 
previously found wild in tbe Monrue mountains, though only now repre¬ 
sented by a dried frond. This plant is so delicate in structure that 
it seems made of fine green silk or spun glass, so lucent and trans¬ 
lucent is its texture. This I believe is the only sport yielded by this 
find, and though so dissimilar it has a curious knack of partial reversion, 
fronds and portions of fronds of the parental type occasionally appearing, 
while its spores yield frequently true specimens of plain plumosum. 
Wills’ and Barnes’ forms have not sported at all ; the latter is reputed to 
be quite barren, but singularly enough a plant in my possession raised 
by basal cutting is extremely fertile. 
The Axminster find, on the other hand, has proved to be the 
progenitor of a regal line of splendid varieties. A very neat crested 
form otherwise of the type is one of its earlier sports, together with a 
form of finer dis.-^ection long known as A. f.-f. plumosum elegans 
{Parsons). A portion of a frond of this last was sent me some years 
ago for inspection, bearing the unusual phenomenon of bulbils on its 
under side, accompanied by spores. Some of thess were sown with the 
