THE COMMON HARD FERN, 
renato; and in no instance are the lobes 
the 
ds fully developed. ‘The 
eighth to one-half of an inch, but are usually 
y in width from one- 
marter of an inch wide, diminishing slightly 
downwards, and rarely attaini 
% length of eight inches. ‘The fertile fronds resemble the barren in 
development, but are still more curious, having occasionally only a few imperfect lobes about an 
n inch in length, and the rest of the s 
ith of а i borne on a narrow wing or membrane bordering 
the rachis, the whole width being under one-eighth of an inch. They vary, however, from this to a 
fuller development of rather 
more than half an inch wide, with 
h fronds 
ro frequent lobes, and wit 
about eleven inches long. There are al 
produced fronds which aro intermediate between the barren 
and fertile, It was found near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1853, by Mr. Wollaston, and is at present a 
unique and constant form, 
2. heterophyllum (УУ). This form 
probably the first stop from the normal form towards the 
variety strictum, bearing two sorts of fro 
ids, either separately or commi 
ıgled. Some fronds are of the 
usual cha 
meter ; others have the segments more or less altered, Босо 
ig either narrowed and 
dentate, or shortened to a semicircular outline, with the margin inciso-dentate ; and this in an unequal 
and ds 
regular manner, though frequently portions of the f metimes entire fronds, bear the 
shortened segments, and are conseque 
ly linear in outline. As in many other varieties of this 
monstrous character, the 
lants, though not producing all the fronds affected, always bear affected 
fronds, and it is altogether a curious, constant, and rare variety. It was found in 18 
Wells, Kent, by Mr, Wollaston 
3. strictum (Francis). This 
3, near Tunbridge 
scribed by Mr. Francis, from Westmoreland fronds com- 
municated by Miss Beever, has been found more recently by Dr, Allchin, in Ireland ; and again, by 
Mr. F. Clowes, near Bleak Holme, Windermere, The fronds are pinnatifd, the lobes being unsym- 
metrically and bluntly toothed, wavy, laciniate, depauperate, and rarely bifurcate ; the lower lobes 
resembling the upper valve of a small shell of the genus Area, ‘The fertile fronds are unknown. It is 
a permanent and graceful form, and very rare, 
4. interruplum (W). 
is combines the peculiarities of several of the varieties before enumerated, 
and is very variable in its growth, but differs from all in having some fronds ramoso, others normal but 
depauporated in part, and their apices bent down fuleately, others of the intermediate semi-fertile 
character 
; With tho lobes bifureate, but all interrupted ; and whe 
this change of the lobes occurs 
the frond forms an irregular cur 
ature, and throws out an abortive frond, or what will probably 
т 
prove to be а bulbil resembling other proliferous forms, It was found near 
by Mr. Wollaston, 
bridge Wells, Kent, 
xls a permanent and unique variety 
5. serratum (Wo. This form may have been originally caused by great luxurianee of growth, 
amd excessive moisture, but it has proved con 
Mr. Wol 
are about four and a half inches wide in the contro, and eighteen inches long ; their lobes are sharply 
it more or less since 1853, when it was found by 
ın in a boggy ditch near Tunbridge Wells, Kent. The fertile fronds, nearly oval in outline, 
serrated, and one or more of the apical lobes start off nearly at a r de, forming other small 
fronds, The barren fronds are deeply serrated and frequently bifureate ; the semi-fertile fronds aro 
normal, without serratures 
в. multifidum (W.) is the normal form, which occasionally (but neither uniformly nor symmetrically) 
divides once or more at the apex. Tt is not constant under cultivation, but is of frequent occurrence 
in damp shady places 
bifidum (W.) is а further development of multifidum, e 
In this the apex is moro frequently multifid, and rather erisped ; 
used by excessive shade and n 
ture, 
1 the lobos, both of tho fertile and 
niformly, in the same way. Tt is а sub-permanent form 
barren fronds, are sometimes affected, but not 
and not une у 
8. Дыши (М). Тһе peculiarity of this form is, that the apex of the rachis is, as it were, split 
down a few inches, both sides of the resulting branches bearing lobes, but those on the inner sides 
