In 1861, whilst out rambling across the Duke of Montrose’s Buchanan estate in Stirlingshire, James Cosh came across a large attractive fern. Having alerted the estate’s gardener Mr Connon to his discovery, the fern was moved from its original location by the wood into the main garden. Various fern experts were approached and eventually Mr John Sadler described the variety in the ‘Transactions of the Botanical Society Edinburgh’ (vol.viii) as follows, “The variety of filix-femina is quite new, so far as I know, and is a very beautiful one. As a queen amongst Lady Ferns it would well bear to be called Victoria.'”