LADDER FERN, 
smooth, oblong-laneeolate, sub-bi 
ipinnate, bipinnate, or rarely tripinnate. 2 
late, with the pinnules us 
nnæ ovate-lanceolate or 
by a wing to the rachis. Pinnules of the more typical forms ovate at the base of tho 
inne, oblong 
towar 
morally acute but sometimes bluntish ; the larger deeply pinnatifid, with o 
toothed lobes; the smaller inciso-dentate or more shallowly toothed, the teeth generally acute. Tn the 
angustata series of forms the pinnulos are na 
onspieuously and acutely toothed ; in 
tho dentata series, they are not 
о much separated, and are blunter, and usually, though not always, 
Jess deeply toothed, but always with the teeth blunt. 
Venation of the larger pinnules consisting of a flexuous midvein, from which a branch or гейі 
Proceeds along cach lobe, giving off secondary branches, or renden, mostly simple, one of which 
these lobes, 
inal tooth. ‘The smaller pinnužes more or less resemblo the la 
imilar as regards their venation, 
Pructification scattered. over the whole back of the frond. Sort roundish in outline, numerous, 
borne on nearly all the branch 
of the veins in fully fructifid fronds, and thus in the more divided 
forms appearin 
be scattered without order over the whole surface, but in the less divi 
more evidently placed in а line, near tho margin of the pinnules, as they often are in the 1 
* though in some forms they are situated nearer the midrib than the margin, and often in 
beco 
e confluent; indusiate, medial on the veins. Zndusium а thin smooth delicate hoo: 
od 
membrane 
tached behind 4 
either truncato and thus roundish, or pro- 
longed at the point and thus acutely or acuminately ovate ; at first inflected forwards over the spore 
soon, however, becoming reflected backwards and shrivelled ; the anterior margin either entire 
or split into na 
w segments. Spore-cases roundish obovate, Spores round or oblong, strongly echinate 
Duration. The caudex is perennial, "The fronds are annual, appearing in April or Мау; they 
quickly arrive at maturity, and are 
owed by others in succession through the summer; an 
эге destroyed by the early frosts of autu 
Viewed as a collective spocies—and it cannot be satisfe 
ily viewed in any other light—this Fern is 
‘easily enough recognised by its small slender fragile bipinnate oblong-lanceolate fronds, and the peculiar 
f the fructification may be seen enclosing, 
anists have from time to time endeavoured to separate from it, though sometimes assuming a 
hooded or semienlyeifo 
the roundish masses o vus in character that the species which 
b 
distinct-looking aspect, are at other times not easily to be ree 
p 
Athyrium Füirfomina and L 
Te is a plant so polymorph 
gnised, and aro scarcely to be defi 
manently, even ns varieties. The Cystopteris fragilis may indeed. be considered as being, like the 
trea dilatata, a botanical ignis fatuus, alluring the incautious novelty 
in which, when at length his mental vision b 
secker among the qu 
cleared by more extended observations, he finds himself h 
The indusium of Cystopteris when assuming the truncated somicalyciform character it sometimes 
bears, stands in the same relation to the hemitelioid scales found behind the sori in some species of 
Alsophila, as the more perfect cup in Woodvia—a true cup in some exotic species—does to that of 
the polypodiaceous and eyatheac 
Cyathea, These genera thus become connecting links betwe 
series. Cystopteris has also a close affinity with that genus of davallioid ferns, called Aerophorus, 
This is a pretty little fern for the cultivator, affording some variety in his collection, and thriving 
y greenhouses, or on open shady rock-work in localities which enjoy a 
"The soil may be composed of light turfy peat and loam, with sand, in 
ге atmosphe 
sould be ample. It increases readily by division or from the spores 
equal parts, and the drainage 
dam 
spoils those plants which aro 
oon sp 
The fronds are freque 1 by the ravages of a yellow fungus (Uredo ficum), which 
Hously attacked. From its most commonly 
