Scottish plant uses

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Cystopteris dickieana
This Scottish endemic fern provides the subject for a fascinating botanical story. Our setting is the 'fern craze' of the Victorian era, a time when rarities in the fern world were under threat from overzealous collectors. Amongst the British fern species, one by the name of Asplenium fontanum, (now A. billotii) was particularly prized. Specimens of this species reputed to be from Britain were highly sought after, as the nativity of this 'species' was considered questionable. As the taxonomy of the time was somewhat less refined, a number of what are seen as distinct species today would often be lumped together, 'disguising' rare species amongst others. In August 1848, A letter appeared in The Phytologist, a botanical journal of the time, from one Reverend W. Bree, mentioning that he had seen a fern in the garden of Lady Maria Finch's garden in Boxley Abbey, near Maidstone, Kent. He remarked on the beautiful fronds (which he believed to be Asplenium fontanum) to the owner and asked where she had got them. Upon asking the gardener, a very intelligent Scotchman, where the fern had been procured, and remarking at the same time that, of course it was foreign, not British origin, he assured me he had received it from a friend in Scotland, who had gathered it in a spot where he had himself previously found it in some abundance. The Reverend gentleman was unable to state where the locality was in this letter as he had forgotten it. In a follow-up letter, in the November issue, he was able to reveal that they had been found by a friend of David Hutcheson (the gardener) in shaded rocks by the sea, two miles north-east of Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, in 1842. Although the presence of the fern in the type locality (i.e. the first sea cave in which it was found) is thought to have been discovered in 1838 by local academics, it was not publicised. It is likely that William Knight, a botany professor in Aberdeen probably showed it to some of his pupils, including a George Dickie (later to go on and study the plant) and that was it. However, the public exposure, in 1848 subjected the population of this species to great threat from collectors and the first known locality was almost cleared out only 12 years after the 1848 revelation. By this time another two cave sites had also been found and, despite the intensive interest that was shown, the fern survived. During this fern's period of popularity, it turns out that a revision of the taxonomy, by one Robert Sim showed the Kincardineshire population to be distinct from the Asplenium fontanum it had previously believed to be. In fact, the fern was assigned to a completely separate genus and given the name Cystopteris fragilis Var. dickieana. Sim suggested, even further, that if any subspecies of C. fragilis merited its own specific rank, then this one did. Over the following years, the fern did gradually gain acceptance as a separate species. This meant that the Kincardineshire sea caves were the only known locality for a very rare endemic species and it is a miracle that the population was not decimated. It's survival may have been due to the relative ease with which species could be cultivated and, indeed, specimens were being sold for as little as one or two shillings by the late 1850s. The fern survives today and is confirmed from a few coastal caves in Kincardineshire as well as possibly from some more montane sites in the Grampian mountains. The ability for this species to survive in salt-laden air has potentially kept the population distinct from other related species (preventing ready hybridisation) and we can perhaps be thankful to this tolerance and the inaccessibility of its localities for the survival of this unique Scottish endemic. NOTE THAT THIS SPECIES IS PROTECTED IN THE WILD UNDER BRITISH LAW AND SHOULD NOT BE COLLECTED! - OTHER REFERENCES: Bree, W. T. (1848) Supposed Scotch locality for Asplenium fontanum. The Phytologist III: 213 / 319., Marren, P. (1984) The History of Dickie's fern in Kincardineshire. Pteridologist 1: 27-32., Page, C. N. (1997) The ferns of Britain & Ireland. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Bibliographic reference: Britten, J. (1881/82) European Ferns. Cassel, Petter, Galpin & Co., London.

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	Cystopteris dickieana This Scottish endemic fern provides the subject for a fascinating botanical story. Our setting is the 'fern craze' of the Victorian era, a time when rarities in the fern world were under threat from overzealous collectors. Amongst the British fern species, one by the name of Asplenium fontanum, (now A. billotii) was particularly prized. Specimens of this species reputed to be from Britain were highly sought after, as the nativity of this 'species' was considered questionable. As the taxonomy of the time was somewhat less refined, a number of what are seen as distinct species today would often be lumped together, 'disguising' rare species amongst others. In August 1848, A letter appeared in The Phytologist, a botanical journal of the time, from one Reverend W. Bree, mentioning that he had seen a fern in the garden of Lady Maria Finch's garden in Boxley Abbey, near Maidstone, Kent. He remarked on the beautiful fronds (which he believed to be Asplenium fontanum) to the owner and asked where she had got them. Upon asking the gardener, a very intelligent Scotchman, where the fern had been procured, and remarking at the same time that, of course it was foreign, not British origin, he assured me he had received it from a friend in Scotland, who had gathered it in a spot where he had himself previously found it in some abundance. The Reverend gentleman was unable to state where the locality was in this letter as he had forgotten it. In a follow-up letter, in the November issue, he was able to reveal that they had been found by a friend of David Hutcheson (the gardener) in shaded rocks by the sea, two miles north-east of Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, in 1842. Although the presence of the fern in the type locality (i.e. the first sea cave in which it was found) is thought to have been discovered in 1838 by local academics, it was not publicised. It is likely that William Knight, a botany professor in Aberdeen probably showed it to some of his pupils, including a George Dickie (later to go on and study the plant) and that was it. However, the public exposure, in 1848 subjected the population of this species to great threat from collectors and the first known locality was almost cleared out only 12 years after the 1848 revelation. By this time another two cave sites had also been found and, despite the intensive interest that was shown, the fern survived. During this fern's period of popularity, it turns out that a revision of the taxonomy, by one Robert Sim showed the Kincardineshire population to be distinct from the Asplenium fontanum it had previously believed to be. In fact, the fern was assigned to a completely separate genus and given the name Cystopteris fragilis Var. dickieana. Sim suggested, even further, that if any subspecies of C. fragilis merited its own specific rank, then this one did. Over the following years, the fern did gradually gain acceptance as a separate species. This meant that the Kincardineshire sea caves were the only known locality for a very rare endemic species and it is a miracle that the population was not decimated. It's survival may have been due to the relative ease with which species could be cultivated and, indeed, specimens were being sold for as little as one or two shillings by the late 1850s. The fern survives today and is confirmed from a few coastal caves in Kincardineshire as well as possibly from some more montane sites in the Grampian mountains. The ability for this species to survive in salt-laden air has potentially kept the population distinct from other related species (preventing ready hybridisation) and we can perhaps be thankful to this tolerance and the inaccessibility of its localities for the survival of this unique Scottish endemic. NOTE THAT THIS SPECIES IS PROTECTED IN THE WILD UNDER BRITISH LAW AND SHOULD NOT BE COLLECTED! - OTHER REFERENCES: Bree, W. T. (1848) Supposed Scotch locality for Asplenium fontanum. The Phytologist III: 213 / 319., Marren, P. (1984) The History of Dickie's fern in Kincardineshire. Pteridologist 1: 27-32., Page, C. N. (1997) The ferns of Britain & Ireland. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Bibliographic reference: Britten, J. (1881/82) European Ferns. Cassel, Petter, Galpin & Co., London.

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