February 11, 1888. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
377 
NEPHROLEPIS RUFESCENS 
TRIPINNATIFI DA. 
The illustration below represents a handsome garden 
Fern that ought to find a place in every collection ; 
and from the readiness with which it can be cultivated, 
we venture to predict that before the lapse of many 
years few establishments, where decorative Ferns are 
grown in Britain, will be without this ornamental 
variety. It bears the same relation to the type that 
the Welsh Polypody bears to the common wild form ; 
and everyone who has any knowledge of Ferns what¬ 
ever, knows that the mueh-divi.ded or cut-leaved 
form is by far the more ornamental of the two. 
Messrs. James Yeitch & Sons, to whom we are 
indebted for the illustration, originally put the 
Nephrolepis in question into commerce, and still have 
a large stock of it. Some of the older plants have 
fronds from 3 ft. to 4^ ft. in length, or even larger. 
From our point of view, however, we consider that 
plants with fronds ranging from 1 ft. to 2 ft. in length 
are by far the most graceful, the neatest, and decidedly 
the most attractive and useful for decorative purposes. 
from the fact that they have a mixture of various 
colours running through their tissues, owing to the 
effects of fertilisation by various parents. One thing 
is certain in these sports, and that is, they generally 
spring from varieties that are more or less striped in 
their flowers, and that a break rarely takes place from 
any of the good standard varieties like Alba plena. 
Still there are some of the older forms of striped kinds, 
like Jenny Lind, Jubilee, Mrs. Cope, &c., that maintain 
their character intact without showing the slightest 
signs of sporting. This fact seems to make it more 
conclusive that the cause of sporting, to a great extent, 
may be traced to the agency that has been brought 
about by the effects of cross-fertilisation. Climatic 
conditions and soil may, to a great extent, have a 
prevailing influence, but not so much as the cause stated 
above. Whatever may be the cause, it is certain the 
cultivator has no control over the matter, and the 
effects must be considered due to natural causes, which 
are brought about by the blood inherited from the 
parents. 
Sports that originate in the form of variegation are 
character is white, blotched with rose spots. It yield 
flowers in abundance that are often pure white ; while 
at times a flower will turn up of a uniform rose colour. 
It is a very variable kind, and no dependence can be 
placed upon what kind of flowers will open until you 
see them. 
In Bonomiana we have a splendid Camellia when 
true to its normal character, the groundwork of the 
flower being white, broadly banded, and spotted with 
rosy carmine, very double, and finely imbricated. I 
have never seen this give a pure white flower, but it 
will oftener than otherwise give a fine rosy carmine- 
self flower amongst the others. Countess of Derby is 
one of the finest and largest Camellias extant ; its large 
fleshy broad petals are finely imbricated, and very 
smooth, the colour being pure white with well-defined 
stripes of deep rose. It will occasionally break away 
from its true character, and give a large, beautifully 
netted, rose-coloured flower, equal to such fine kinds 
as the well-known Valtevaredo. 
Mrs. Anne Maria Hovey, an American variety, sent 
out about ten years ago, is another instance of this 
NEPHROLEPIS RUFF.SCEXS TRIPINNATIFIDA. 
The fronds are two or three time spinnatifid or deeply 
cut, as the varietal name implies, and so close and 
crowded are the pinna? on this account that they 
overlap one another like the laths of a Venetian blind. 
They are, however, by no means massive or solid¬ 
looking, but partake rather of a rich and leafy 
character. The smaller figure illustrates the natural, 
tufted, and attractive habit of the plant. 
-- 
SPORTIVE CAMELLIAS. 
A keen observer may notice many strange freaks 
amongst the numerous classes of plants at present 
under cultivation ; some plants will vary their foliage, 
whilst others will show sportive freaks in the production 
of their flowers, either by means of doubling, or by 
what is not uncommon amongst some plants, that is, 
the production of flowers of various colours upon the 
same plant. 
Upon what hypothesis this is to be explained I am 
not prepared to say, but that it does occur we have 
ample proof in some of the Camellias I shall enumerate. 
Undoubtedly the effect of the hybridisation in some of 
the newer kinds may have some effect on the plants, 
considered by some to be due to a diseased constitution, 
and by others as the natural outcome of luxuriant 
cultivation ; but whether the sportive action of the 
flowers be a disease or not is a difficult problem to 
solve. It seldom occurs that after a shoot on any 
particular plant has once sported away from its 
original it reverts back to it again, but the two forms 
keep growing on together. 
In the case of Camellias this may be to some people 
who are fond of variety more a source of pleasure than 
otherwise ; and to the tradesman it may mean a new 
variety, should the colour be so well defined as to be 
distinct from any other kind in commerce. To 
illustrate this, the following kinds of Camellias, when 
under good cultivation, will bear out the above remarks, 
and the novelty that is produced in great variety 
amongst such sports will naturally cause the grower to 
be looking forward with expectation to some new freak 
developing itself. 
In the form known as Adelina Benvenuti we have a 
very erect-growing plant with small foliage, of a 
peculiar light green colour. The flowers rarely ever 
exceed 2 ins. in diameter, the petals being somewhat 
pointed, and very close set; the colour when true to 
sportive character amongst the genus. It was heralded 
into this country with a flourish of trumpets from the 
press, and also by another well-known device, a First 
Class Certificate from the Royal Horticultural Society 7 . 
It is a good-habited kind, yielding pure white flowers 
and others of a soft pink colour, and has medium-sized, 
well-formed flowers. Comtessa Paolina Maggiis another 
that is somewhat similar to the above, giving both 
white and pink flowers. 
Fanny Sanchioli is a remarkable instance of a sport¬ 
ing Camellia, the character of the ordinary form being 
white, slightly striped with pink. It will sport with 
flowers of a beautiful rosy salmon colour, edged with 
white, equal to Bicolor de la Reine ; and it has been 
known to produce two flowers on the top of a strong 
shoot, one flower white, striped with pink, the other 
rosy salmon, edged white—a very remarkable coinci¬ 
dence. The semi-double Tricolor de Mathot will often 
sport to self-coloured flowers of an intense crimson, 
thus adding materially to the lustre of the plant when 
in full bloom with its finely striped ordinary flowers. 
Other varieties will sport in a similar manner, but 
sufficient have been enumerated to show that from half- 
a-dozen plants at least a dozen different colours may be 
