THK LADY FERN. 



the common forms of the secies iu being nearly prostrato ami very rigid. The scales, which thickly 

 clothe the lower portion of the stipes, are of an intense brown colour, almost black. The fronds, 

 which are sub-bipinnate. vary much hi size, and are exactly lanceolate, the shortening of the pinna* from 

 the centre of the frond being c<|ual, both towards the apex and the base. The pinuas taper but little 

 from the raehis for two-thirds of their length, and from thence into a somewhat acuminate point 

 The pinnules are crowded and overlapping, oblong and blunt, and simply notched. 



4. itmodon (M.). A very elegant form of small size, varying from one foot to a foot and a half in 

 height. The pinnules are united by a narrow wing along the raehis, and are approximate, linear- 

 oblong, pinnatilid with toothed lobes below, simply toothed above, the teeth conspicuously narrow, regular, 

 ami somewhat elongated. The raehis is pale dull red. It has been communicated from Ilfrncombe, by 

 the Rev. J. M. Chanter, and from Gomshall, by Mr. E. Morse. The scales arc palo tawny brown ; but 

 in a closely allied plant, from Devonshire, they are black. The fine elegant toothing is remarkable. 



5. acuminatum (M.). A very curious dwarf variety, gathered on Snowdon, by Mr. W. l'amplin, and 

 constant under cultivation. It has a short stipes, with narrow contorted scales ; fronds rather more 

 than a foot high ; and somewhat crowded pinna-, ending in a longish serrated acumen. The pinnules are 

 distinct, but decurrent, oblong but oftcu narrowed below, crowded, patent, pinnatifid below, and cut 

 around the blunt apex into longish acuto teeth. It is altogether a slender-looking and elegant plant. 

 Mr. E. J. Lowo has sent a similar form from Clitheroc, Lancashire. 



6. excurrens (M.(. The general appearance of this plant is that of mot/c, but the points of the piano?, 

 and sometimes of the pinnules and teeth, run out into diaphanous hair-like points, which have the 

 appearance of being an excurrent growth of the veins. It was found at Tunbridgo Wells in 1653, and 

 is cultivated by Mr. Wollaston. A similar variety has been found near Ilfracombc by the Rev. J. M. 



Chanter. 



7. prumowm <M.). This resembles the moderately developed growths of rnolle, but has the stipes 

 and raehides covered with small glands, which give them a hoary appearance, somewhat resembling 

 pubescence. It occurs with both red and green stores, 'i'he form, with red stipes, we found at Tarbet, 

 in Dumbartonshire ; and a very similar plant was gathered by Dr. Allchin in the Isle of Man- 

 Another state, rather more lax, and with palo green stipes, has been found by Dr. Allchin at Virginia 



Water, Surrey. 



8. odontomancs (M.). A small form, growing from a foot to a foot and a half liigh. It has broadly 

 lanceolate fronds, short broad acuminate pinna;, and rather distant patent pinnules, decurrent at the pos- 

 terior base, deeply pinnatilid, the lobes toothed with elongated or linear acute irregular teeth. The most 

 marked form was sent from Conistonc, by Miss S. Bcovcr. We have analogous forms, as well as 

 others closely akin but narrower, found in Denbighshire by Mr. Pritchard ; at Virginia Water and in the 

 Isle of Man, by Dr. Allchin ; and by ourselves at Glen Croe, in Argyleshire, and Tarbet, in Dumbarton- 

 shire. It may 1* regarded as a long-toothed aud usually small, often narrow, form of the mo/tc group. 



'J. molle (Roth). The form, which we consider to be the A. moUe of Roth, is a small plant of from 

 one to two feet high, las with rather distant pinna ; the pinnules oblong bluntish, having a broad 

 attachment, and more or less obviously connected at the base by the narrow wing of the raehis ; they 

 are pinnatilid, the lobes oblong, and the lowest two or three-toothed, the rest notched or simple. The 

 larger states of this form, in which the pinnules become more distant, rather less conspicuously united 

 at the base, and rather more deeply toothed, correspond with a specimen of the Potypodium molle of 

 Schrcbcr, preserved in Sir J. E. Smith's herbarium. We believe it is not at all an uncommon plant, 

 but it is met with under several conditions differing in size, and in the degree of toothing, and of con- 

 fluence in the pinnules, tho larger forms merging into trifidum. 



10. trifidum (Roth). This is a larger plant than molle, with moro distinct pinnules, the latter of 

 an oblong lanceolate form, rather larger at the base on the anterior side, and cut half way to the midrib 

 into lobes, the majority of which, in the typical states, are entire at tho edges, and thrcc-lobcd at the 





I *\i. 



