I 270 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
i 
| been debarred from becoming members, would at once 
come forward, and are now merely waiting to see wliat 
steps are to be taken to establish the Society on a sure 
I basis. 
Whatever arrangements are made, we trust the 
Garden, which is, after all, the right arm of the Society, 
will be placed under such management as to make it 
attractive and appreciable. Let there be a head- 
gardener of first-rate talent, and courteous in his 
manners, who shall be wholly independent of, and 
irresponsible to, any one but tlie Council, into whose 
bands everything pertaining to the Garden shall be 
committed, and under whose direction all operations 
shall be conducted. Let the present “departments,” 
which have always been working in antagonism to each 
other, be abolished or remodelled, and let there be one 
head, who shall be responsible for the success or failure 
of the trust committed to him. 
In these arrangements there is one whose claims we 
trust will not be overlooked, and who, for upwards of 
thirty years, has been a faithful servant and a bright 
ornament in these Gardens; who,under the most trying 
circumstances, has shown an amount of forbearance 
which few men possess, and to whom the Society is 
deeply indebted for much of the world-wide reputation 
which it has enjoyed. To Mr. Robert Thompson the 
horticultural world, both at home and abroad, is under 
a lasting debt of gratitude; and there is no one, 
whether members of the Society or visitors to the 
Gardens, who would not testify to the devotedness 
with which he has applied, and the success with 
which he has carried out, all the operations with which 
he has been intrusted. Therefore, we cannot doubt but 
his valuable services will be retained. There are many 
men who could fill the other offices in the Garden; but 
we know of no one who is able to undertake what has 
occupied Mr. Thompson a lifetime to acquire, or who is 
so capable of being at the head of that fruit department 
upon which he has thrown so much light, and with 
which bis name is so inseparably connected. 
LASTRiE'A CRISTA’TA. 
This Fern has been called by botanists Polypodium 
cristatum and calypteris, Polystiohum cristatum, Lo- 
phodium callipteris, and Aspulium cristatum. In English 
it is called the Crested Fern, Crested Polypody, and 
Crested Shield Fern. 
Root tufted, stout, and far-branching, producing 
fronds from the ends of each root-branch. Fronds 
yellowish-green, several, and in favourable situations 
more than two feet high; very erect, and the general 
outline of the frond line-like, the leaflets very gradually 
decreasing in length. The leaflets clothe rather more 
than one half of the stalk, the lower half of the stalk 
having upon it many scattered, brown, blunt scales, green 
in front, and channelled, but purple below. The lower 
leaflets are usually opposite, but the upper leaflets are 
alternate. They are very deeply and regularly lobed, 
GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.— July 15, 1856. 
rather than leafited; the lobes are broad, blunt, sugar- 
loaf shaped, and sharply-toothed round their edge, the 
teeth ending in short bristles. The side veins in each 
lobe are much branched, and from the base of each 
main branch rises the vein, at the end of which is the 
fructification ; and its masses, somewhat kidney-shaped- 
are in two rows, one on each side the mid vein, at a 
distance equal from that and the edge of the lobe. The 
cover ( indusium ) of each mass is swollen, permanent, 
and pale lead-coloured. The masses usually run toge¬ 
ther by the time the spores are ripe. The spores are at 
first black, but they become rusty as they ripen. 
In very luxuriant specimens, and in specimens grow¬ 
ing in very shaded situations, this Fern attains a height 
of even three feet, and the leaflets are wider apart. 
This is one of our rarest Ferns. It has been found on 
boggy heaths, among ooarse grass, at the Lows, on 
Holt Heath ; at Fritton, near Yarmouth, and Surlingham 
Road, near Norwich,—all in Norfolk; amoDg Alder 
bushes, at Westleton, and at Bexley, near Ipswich, in 
Suffolk; on Oxton Bogs, in Nottinghamshire; in 
Huntingdonshire; near Madeley, in Staffordshire; and 
