THE LADY FERN 
confluent. It is a common plant. Possibly it 
apex. The sori are near to the midrib, and often beco 
ho commoner small plants referred to 
may be the more highly developed condition of some 
molle; or, it may be a loss developed stato of the ineinum group. We believe, however, that 
le and odontomanes, are permanently distinct. from 
some at Teast of the forms referred above to mo 
the more divided forms representing tho incisum and rhætieum groups, 
11. oratum (Roth), This is more readily identified, from being figured by Müller. Tt grows from 
two to three feet: high, with broad lanceolat i are: ОЕ заноне 
of the lobes not 
st on the anterior side, deeply pinnatifid, the toothi 
obtuse at the points, flat, largi 
confined to their apices, The sori are placed in two lines near the midrib, and a tendency is shown to 
developo more than one on the basal lobes. Tt does not appear to be very frequent. 
” 
12, obtusum QML). This has broad fronds, about two fect high, the leafy portion about half as broad 
as long. ‘The pinnules are flat, distinct, obliquely and very obtusely ovate-oblong, somewhat deeurrent 
behind, eut into a few broad variously-toothei lobes, the teeth short and bluntish. It has somewhat 
va dilatata, Тһе sori form two lines nearer the midrib 
the appearance of blunt pinnuled forms of Zas 
than the margin. It was found at Virginia Water by Dr. Allehin. 
13. frondosum (М.). "This is a larger and more compound state, two to three feet high, with broad 
ds having a n 
lanceolate fronds, and broad approximate pinnse ; the fro ө crowded leafy appearance 
the frond are sometimes seven-cighths of an inch long, and 
than usual. The pinnnles near the contro 
fully three-eighths in breadth, pyramidal, pinnatifid nearly to the midrib, the lobes oblong toothed, and 
the lower ones bearing several sori, in which the tendency to become arcuate is strongly marked, that 
nearest the midvein of the pinnule, on each lobe, being uniformly horse-shoe-shap 
1. The stipes and 
rachis are red in plants we have met with at Mayford. A very similar form has been sent us from Den. 
Dighshire by Mr. Pritchard ; and another form which belongs here also, has been sont by Mr. E. J. Lowe 
14. davallioides (W.). This sin 
lar aberration from the normal form was discovered in 1854, near 
Castle Kelly, in the county of Dublin, Ireland. Dr. Kinahan, its discoverer, describes the pinnules 
to be pinnatiid ; “the indentations entire at their edges, and bearing the sori in the a 
The spore 
ceases project beyond the edge of the frond, which, added to the bulging forwards of the substance of the 
pinnule, gives the plant much the appearance of a Davallia, tho 
wh of course differing from that genus 
in the shape and position of the indusium ; the segments bear but a singl 
raro ; and only known to us from the 
bove memoranda, communicated by Mr. Wollaston. 
15. ineisum (Ноћна. This re 
resents the species in its highest state of development, the pinnules being 
so deeply divided that the fronds become almo 
thery fronds, Tn one e 
with broad dropi 
by Mr, в 
Т ample now before us, gathered in the county Clare, Ireland, 
arrington, the height is about five foot, and the breadth one foot, the pinnw which are 
ascending being quite nino inches long, and the pinnules an inch and a half long, and five-cighths of 
fan inch wide at the base, Three to four feet is not an uncommon height for this variety, which puts 
‘on many appearances, and in one 
т of its conditions is not infrequent. А form of it less 
‘common, has the divisions of tho pinnules more narrowed and distinct than usual, but equally deeply eut 
аз represented in Prate XXX, which is perhaps the most elegant state ipei 
f this really graceful species 
16. larum (chum), This is like the last in bein 
a largo broad much divided form, but in well 
of the anterior basal lobe of the long narrow pinnules, which form a line on each side the n ib 
mens from the neighbourhood of Shrewsbury, in the collection of the 
first attracted our notice in spe 
Rev. W. A. 
Leight 
1, and we have since received it from many localities in the three king 
it does not appear to be an accidental condition, but a distinct and permanent form, 
It accords with 
Schumacher's deseription of his Athyrium 
ion of the anterior lobe into a kind 
auricle, indicates an appro 
h towards the variety rhertioum, in which the same kind of е 
manifest, but all our specimens are much broader 
and more lax than the latter plant. We may add. 
