March 7, 1961 
THE GARDENING WORLD . 
203 
The Lady Fern. # 
(Athyrium Filix-foemina.) 
By Charles T. Druery, F.L.S., Y.M.H. 
Our common Lady Fern belongs to a very small family 
indeed, unless we accept the dictum of the ruling botanists and 
class it as an Asplenium, in which case it would belong to a 
very large one. I am confident, however, that not one of our 
members would agree to this, nor would anyone who had care¬ 
fully studied not merely the veiy slight resemblance to Spleen- 
wort fructification, which may appear in dried herbarium 
specimens, but the living plant itself, in which it requires a 
, strong imagination to permit of its detection at all. In all 
other respects, it differs so fundamentally from the Spleenwort 
family that the actual cultivator and student of the species 
cannot accept such a classification. 
In the first, place 1 , it is a thoroughly deciduous Fern, while 
the Asplenia are not; it is a lover of boggy habitats, growing in 
moist soil, while the Asplenia, mainly affect rocky habitats, or 
even walls ; the texture of the fronds is widely different from 
any Asplenia we know of; and, finally, the most important 
feature of all, it is one of the two or three most variable species 
in all the world, while the Asplenia generally are renowned 
for their constancy. Even the spores, by their shape, protest 
against the name, being smoothly oval or kidney-shaped, while 
those of the Spleenworts are corrugated and ridged, which is, 
perhaps, the most decisive evidence of difference of genus. 
One curious fact connected with the Lady Fern is its ex¬ 
tremely wide distribution, since, besides being a British Fern, 
it is found throughout Europe, Asia, North America, and some 
parts of South America, and also in parts of Africa, New 
Zealand and Australia alone presenting no examples. Nor 
must it be assumed that, we are here specially favoured by 
greater abundance, since, for example, in the forests of Austrian 
Poland I found some years ago that the Lady Fern and others 
of our native species were existent in such quantities that the 
soil was literally patched with their crowns, and you can 
imagine my chagrin at finding myself in such a hunting-ground 
in the depth of winter, when, of course, a search for varieties 
was out of the question. In view of this abundance, which is 
paralleled in many other parts of the world, our wonderment 
is enhanced by the fact that only a handful of varieties has been 
found abroad, and these of no very marked character, as 
against the hundreds of wild finds—many, indeed more, of 
which are very distinct indeed—which have been discovered 
here. If we were to take 1 a map of the world and colour the 
habitats of the Fern in red, our British Isles would appear a 
mere drop in the ocean, so to. speak, and yet how rich the 
harvest of forms which the assiduous hunter has reaped within 
that small area! 
Another point of interest in the species is its assumption, of 
types which have not so far turned up in any other, or, at any 
rate, has not been nearly so far developed. The Victoria Lady 
Fern, to wit, has no compeer at all amid all the Ferns in 
the world, since even in the wonderful Shield Ferns the 
cruciatums are not. percruciate, i.e., with cruciate pinnules, to 
say nothing of the charming pendulous tassels. k et this 
marvellous Fern owes nothing at all to selection.; it was found 
finished and perfected by the side of a country lane near Loch 
Lomond, and as we made a pilgrimage to the spot, accompanied 
by Mr. Buchanan, who was in the lane when the young Scotch 
student Mr. Coab, found it, we were enabled to make a 
sketch of the identical phice. 
Of those who argue that Ferns and other plants vary in 
response to. their environment, I would ask what conceivable 
factor could exist in this place to induce the creation of such 
a masterpiece, and yet be lacking so entirely everywhere else 
that no second example or even approach thereto has ever 
turned up, though the vicinity has been hunted repeatedly? 
Look again at Frizelliae, Fieldiae, Kalothrix, Vernoniae and 
• A paper read at the British Bteridologieal meeting of August, 1902 
many others in which her ladyship lias seemingly invented 
new fashions and secured the copyrights for all the world. It 
may, indeed, be said without depreciating our other prolific 
species in the varietal way, that the Lady Fern stands pre- 
eminent for versatility. Leaving the Hart’s-tongues out of 
the question, for they naturally are bound to 1 vary in quite 
different lines, I do not know of any variety in other species 
for which we cannot find a fair counterpart in the Lady Fern, 
while, as I have said, the Lady Fern has afforded not one, but 
many, on unique lines. Polystichum aculeatum puleherrimum 
is, perhaps, an exception, but so far as grades of plumatum and 
cristatum are concerned, all can be matched, and most ex¬ 
celled ; while amongst what, may be tenned eccentrics the Lady 
Fern is an easy first. 
Furthermore, no Fern has responded more readily to the 
efforts of the selective cultivator, and even of the crosser, since 
in the latter direction, although we cannot, it is true, deter¬ 
mine the parents with scientific exactness, the connoisseur 
cannot fail to be convinced of a cross in such a case, for in¬ 
stance, as A. F.-f. Victoria© setigerum, where the percruciate 
chai-acter of the one is pervaded with the translucent bristles 
of the other; or in A. F.-f. congestum excurrens, where the 
Saxifraga bursekiana magnifica (sec p. 206). 
congested type of one parent is so plainly allied with the 
truncate and thorned terminals of the other. 
The writer’s own attempt at crossing Kalothrix with per- 
cristatum Cousens, will also be considered successful in so far 
as the long falcate pinnules of the Kalothrix plumosum 
appeared in conjunction with the Cousensii character. The true 
translucent silky nature of Kalothrix itself is, I fear, too un¬ 
stable to stand the effect of crossing with coarser types. It is 
subject always to partial reversion in places, and when sown 
yields invariably a. good percentage of the plumose type, which 
is presumed to have been its parent. This element in the 
blood appears, therefore, to me to involve a weakness which 
stands in the Avay of a thoroughbred tasselled Kalothrix. 
Nature, however, is wayward, and it would be very rash to 
assert that continued attempts at crossing would be in vain. 
I therefore strongly advise combined sowings of Kalothrix 
spores with some of the refined cristate types; the results at 
the worst will be worth having, while a thorough success would 
be a triumph. 
In the direction of simple selection of seedlings no Fern has 
responded so nobly as the Lady Fern, especially the Axminsrter 
plumosum, which has yielded us the truly regal section of 
crested and uncrested superbums. Here, again, this species 
has excelled even the magnificent Shield Ferns of Jones and 
