
384 BRITISH FERNS 
ШІ 
CRISTATUM Mrs. THOMPSON (Woll.) 
Mrs. Agar Thompson. N. Devon. 1860. 
I ft. gin. 
Syn. THOMPSONLE (Moore). 
One of the most deceptive of ferns, its transformations are truly 
startling. In its infant state it seems, and indeed is, in continual 
danger of being strangled by the very extravagance of its growth, 
for in point of cresting, branching, etc., it indulges in all the 
wildest excesses that a Fern is capable of (and a large proportion 
do die from suffocation), but it gets steadier after a bit, and the 
ramose character becomes less and less marked as the plant 
approaches maturity, but before it quite reaches this, it generally 
breaks out once more into a fit of extravagance, but in another 
direction, running to head, and assuming for a time the appear- 
ance of a grand capitate form, so much so as to deceive the 
unwary, and sometimes others too; in this stage it narrows itself 
at the base as if intending to establish itself permanently as a 
grandiceps—but it does not really mean it—for after a bit it takes 
more sober views, and either from this or from having exhausted 
itself by early excesses it settles down at last into the humdrum 
life of a very ordinary cristatum, and not even that always, for Mr. 
Wollaston maintains that his plants of Thomsonie generally run 
out altogether, but his experience in this way is exceptional, for 
it is still in the blood, and from spores of these almost normal 
plants will spring a fresh brood, that will run through the same 
wild career of extravagance, and settle down quietly at last like 
their parents before them. If anyone is anxious to undergo a 
series of surprises and disappointments, let him grow Thompsonie 
from spores. 
Perhaps in its half-grown state it is seen to the greatest advan- 
tage—it is then one of the most striking of British Ferns— com- 
bining with the dark green foliose character and thickness of 
cresting that are peculiarly its own the branching habit of 
acrocladon ; in fact, so close a resemblance does it bear, in this 
stage, to the latter variety, that the late Mr. Ivery, in spite of all 
his experience, was completely led away, and with perfect good 
faith sent out seedlings of it at a stiffish figure as acrocladon, 
which he had subsequently to redeem. 





