THE BRITTLE BLADDER Fi 
RN. 
ipta (W.). A curious per 
janent monstrosity, found in Westmoreland by Mr. F. Clowes: 
The fronds are all dissimilar, but mostly linear, and all more or less narrowed, fe 
nterrupte 
the altered or 
or contracted state of th 
pinne. ‘These are sometimes reduced to small f 
shaped 
or three-lobed expansions al 
ng а portion of the frond, which is there narrow-linear, or the pinn 
f two to four or six very unequal and irregular, often fan-shaped, pinnules, still producing 
û narrow and contracted outline ously truncated, 
ic pinnules in the interrupted portions are va 
laciniated, depauperated, or sometimes bifid or multifid. Tt is a curious plant and quite permanent. 
sempervirens (М), Tore is another form reputed to have been found both in Devonshire and 
Kent, also a native of Madeira, which has several distinctive features, and may bo called C. fragilis 
‘There are some doubts as to the Englis 
igin of this plant, but of its distinctness 
as a variety, and probably as a species, none, Bolton's figure (t. 45), under the nai 
— 
ne of Polypodium 
um, is a facsimile of moderate-sized specimens, and he besides mentions two of its prominent 
characteristics: if, there 
х, his statement is conclusive, which may be open to doubt, it is a native of 
Sootland. Tt is certainly а 
of F 
found at Tunbridge Wells, and is in cultivati 
tive of Mad 
а, whence we have imported plants received from Mr, Sim 
«тау, and probably occurs also in the other North African Islands, It has also certainly been 
а from this source; but there аге rumours of its having 
been planted there. A similar, but not identical plant, of which a counterpart is also found in Madeira, 
agreeing, however, with the other in its principal features, is loosely stated to have been found in 
Devonshire; b 
this indication of a British habitat is also open to suspicion, the garden whence it has 
been distributed having been enriched by importations from Madeira. Whether Presl’s С. canariensis 
be the same, there appears no means of determining, except by a reference to the Berlin herbaria, 
has not published any definition or character of his plant; and the same may be said of the C. azorica 
of Fée. The striking differences presented by the plants under notice are (1) their evergreen chara 
senhouse—from which, in fact, frost was not exeluded—continuin, 
under shelter, those kept in a cold 
t all other known forms of Cystopteris are quite 
grow in succession through the whole winter, while 
dormant ; (2) the toughness, not brittleness, of their pallid stoutish stipes, which are not easily b 
(3) the greater size of the anterior basal pinnules—these two features being mentioned by Bo 
dge Wells, and Dev 
belonging to his plant; and (4) the glandular-hairy vestiture of the indusi 
the fresh plant, In all these peculiarities, the Madeira, and reputed Tunb 
specimens perfectly agree ; but the latter is somewhat more slender in the stipes, and more acute in the 
е believe it to be, ha 
identical, "This evergreen species, for such w 
pinnules, than the others, which are identical. This evergreen species, 
us fronds of narrowish lanceolate outline, and distinct and 
in addition, a short, ercoping rhizo 
rather distant pinnules, of which th 
are irregularly roundish oblong, murica 
separate, The spo 
