106 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ May, 
it were possible that any abnormal form could surpass the parent form in graceful 
elegance, but the var. comubiense, represented by the annexed woodcut, occupies 
the same relative position to A. Capillus-Veneris that the beautiful farleyense 
does to A. tenerum. Like that variety, it is much larger in all its parts, the 
large wedge-shaped pinnules being divided into numerous and deeply parted 
lobes ; and like that, it does not produce seeds. The fronds are from 12 to 15 
inches long, very delicately membranaceous; the pinnules an inch or more broad 
and an inch long, deeply multifid, the margins dentate-lobate. Both indusium 
and soli are wanting. As in the var. farleyense, the involucres, instead of taking 
the form of indusia and becoming reflexed, are extended in continuation with 
the free-forked veins, and subdivided into numerous slightly dentate and rounded 
lobes. The honour of discovering this beautiful Fern and introducing it to 
cultivation is due to Mr. H. H. Trevithick, of Hayle, who found it growing on 
the rocks by the sea, and near his home. The name I have chosen for it will 
mark it as one more, and not the least valuable, of the many beautiful Fern 
sports found in this county.”—J. Tyerman, Tregoney^ Cornwall. 
THE LILAC.* 
yDMONG the hardy large-growing ornamental shrubs, the Lilac justly occu¬ 
pies a prominent place. Indeed, we consider it second only to the 
Magnolia as an ornamental flowering shrub. It is a universal favourite, 
and fully merits Loudon’s encomium, “beautiful in leaf, and pre-eminently 
so when in flower.” 
The common purple and white varieties, like the red Peeonia and Snowball, 
are familiar to all. They may be seen in almost every farmer’s garden, regaling 
the passer-by in their flowering season with their delicious perfume. Their 
swelling buds and pale green leaves are among the first to proclaim the advance 
of spring, and are always intimately associated with the return of the genial 
season. In this connection Cowper’s description of the Lilac is worthy of 
quotation;— 
“ The Lilac, various in array, now white. 
Now sanguine, and her beauteous head now set 
With purple spikes, pyramidal, as if 
Studious of ornament, yet unresolved 
Which hue she most approved, she chose them all.” 
The colours and shades of its flowers, in the many varieties, are manifold, and 
no less in this respect than in their delicate grace and exquisite fragrance do they 
merit the esteem of the lovers of floriculture. 
The Lilac is adapted to almost any soil and climate. In park or garden, 
lawn or hedge, it lays claim to distinction for effectiveness and beauty. In city 
gardens, where there is only limited space, it is one of the cleanest and most 
satisfactory of shrubs, either as a well-shaped bush or a low tree with neatly 
balanced head. But it is in large places where its charms can be displayed to 
* Read before the Western New York Horticultural Society. 
