
CHAPTER VAI 
WILD ASE ORCS AND HOW EOUND 
HAVING now considered the treatment of Ferns when acquired, we 
may next consider how and where the raw material is obtained. 
There is a very general tendency in botanical and also in horti- 
cultural literature to refer to the many varieties of Ferns as “ garden 
varieties,” ignoring thus entirely the fact that the majority of them 
were discovered as perfectly wild plants absolutely disassociated 
from garden culture, so that the term, in this case, is altogether mis- 
placed. It is, of course, true that many now in commerce are the 
outcome of selective culture ; but even in these cases, in the vast 
majority of instances, they have sprung from a marked typical 
form found under wild: conditions from which they have varied 
by virtue of the rule that once a plant diverges from the normal 
path, it is eminently likely to vary again, so that the divergence 
can hardly fairly be imputed to garden influence, but was already 
inhereht in the wild find. In any case the term “ garden varieties,” 
as applied to the original wild “ sports ” ог“ mutations," is a mis- 
” 
nomer. Still worse in our opinion is the term “ monstrosity " as 
applied to marked abnormal forms generally, however beautiful 
they may be and however much, as in the case of the “ plumose ” 
or extra feathery Ferns, their greater charm may be entirely due 
to mere extension of Nature’s normal plan of subdivision. This 
term, however, is falling more and more into disuse. Despite the 
great number of distinct forms which have been discovered by 
persevering Fern-hunters in the ferny localities of Britain, it must 
be borne in mind that our present wealth of these is the result of 
more than half a century of persistent search by some scores of 
amateur experts, so that it is obvious that the proportion of “sports” 
to normals must be but one to very many thousands. So rare in- 
deed are they comparatively, that it is quite a common remark 
by people who have been induced to search in ferny districts by 
a visit to a collector and a sight of his acquisitions, that “ there 
were heaps of Ferns, but only the common ones,” apparently 
assuming that the uncommon ones were obvious features in other 
localities. In point of fact, it is rarely the case that “ sports ” are 
found otherwise than as single individuals or, where more than one 
48 
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