British Ferns and Their Varieties (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from British Ferns and Their Varieties Although the species of Ferns indigenous to the British Isles are comparatively few in number, contrasted with the multiplicity of those found in tropical and sub-tropical regions, where the necessary conditions of warmth and moisture prevail, and although these selfsame species are in no instance confined to Britain, most of them being widespread and as abundant in many other countries, or even more so, than here, yet for some reason, difficult to explain, they stand far and away above all outside Ferns, even those of their own species, in the varietal phenomena they have exhibited. That this is so may be judged by a comparison of the list of varieties compiled in 1891 by Mr. E. J. Lowe in his British Ferns, and Where Found, the wild finds of which, described and recognized as distinct, number no less than 1119, to which may undoubtedly be added a considerable number of others, as fresh ones are continually turning up, and it is incredible that even Mr. Lowe, with the aid of his many Fern-loving friends, could have become aware of many casual finds which have fallen to the lot of outsiders. Be this as it may, the number mentioned suffices to show that under purely wild and unsophisticated conditions, in our shady lanes, woods, and glens, and in our roadside hedges, hedgebanks, old walls, and creviced rocks, our native Ferns have a most remarkable faculty for departing from the normal type, adopting new ones on most diverse lines, and, in point of fact, by their constancy and capacity for transmitting their peculiarities through their spores to their offspring, of fulfilling all the definitions of fresh species. Exotic Ferns, it is true, have afforded a number of wild sports, but the great majority of those which we see at our shows and in our botanical gardens have varied under cultivation on selective lines, and it is a remarkable fact that we have numerous types of variation in our native species, to which no approach whatever has been made by the exotic sports, of which the majority belong to the crested section, a few to the plumose or extra feathery section, while outside these there are few or none. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.