BRITISH FERNS 
X 
KALOTHRIX (Lowe) 
Mr. Howlett, County Court House, Oxford. (Raised) 1870. 
Mr. Sim, Foot’s Cray, Kent. (Raised) 1874. 
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It was thought for some time that this was an Irish form of 
plumosum, but Mr. Baxter writes that it came from the Chelsea 
Botanic Gardens. With reference to this point Mr. Moore adds 
that it must have been in this case a division from Stansfield’s 
original plant, half of which having been exhibited for a certificate 
at S. Kensington soon after its discovery, was sent by Messrs. 
Stansfield to Chelsea. It is strange, however, considering the very 
marked tendency in the seedlings from the Oxford plant to run in 
the Kalothrix strain, that no similar trace of this strain should ever 
have been detected among the thousands of seedlings raised by 
Messrs. Stansfield and others from the Yorkshire plant. The 
nearest approach to an analogous form is in A. £ f. acuminatissimum 
of Stansfield (a seedling of plumosum), but the distinction is so 
marked as rather to be an argument in favour of a different 
parentage. ^ 
The original plant was raised by Mr. Howlett from a form of 
Plumosum growing in the Oxford Botanic Gardens. Stimulated 
by this result, Mr. Sim obtained a division of the Oxford plant, 
also a seedling p/wmosum, raised by Mr. Howlett from the same 
source, and from one of these (he is not certain which) he states 
that he obtained at the first sowing some hundreds of plants, of 
which about ten or twelve per cent. were Kalothrix, the remainder 
varying between plumosum, sub-plumosum, and normal purple- 
stemmed flix-fæmina. 
In the Sherardian Herbarium, Oxford Botanic Gardens, is to be 
seen a wild frond gathered many years since in the Morne Moun- 
tains, almost identical with Aalothrix. 
This variety requires extreme care in cultivation, strong light 
being fatal to its beauty. When well-grown it is perhaps the most 
delicately beautiful of British Ferns. Some of the happiest results 
have been obtained under treatment suited to filmy ferns, to which 
indeed in appearance it bears no slight resemblance. 

