THE BRITTLE BLADDER FERN. 



7. fnterrupta (W.). A curious permanent monstrosity, found in Westmoreland by Mr. F. Clowes. 

 The fronds are all dissimilar, but mostly linear, and all more or less nan-owed, from the altered or 

 interrupted or contracted state of tho pinna. These arc sometimes reduced to small fan-shaped 

 or thrcc-lobcd expansions along a portion of tho frond, which is there narrow-linear, or the pinna; 

 consist of two to four or six very unequal and irregular, often fan-shaped, pinnules, still producing 

 a narrow and contracted outline. The pinnules in tho Interrupted portions are variously truncated, 

 laciniated. depauperated, or sometimes bifid or multifid. It is a curious plant and quite permanent 





8. aanpenirmt (SI,). There is another form reputed to have been found Iwth in Devonshire and 

 Kent, also a native of Madeira, which has several distinctive features, and may be called C. fragU 

 smnpervirm*. 9 There arc some doubts as to the English origin of this plant, but of its distinct 

 as a variety, and probably as a species, none. Bolton's figure <t 45), under the name of Potypodium 

 r/uetictnn, is a facsimile of moderate -sized specimens, and ho besides mentions two of its prominent 

 characteristics : if, therefore, his statement is conclusive, which may bo open to doubt, it is n native of 

 Scotland. It is certainly a native of Madeira, whence we have imported plants received from Mr. Sim 

 of Footscray, and probably occurs also in the other North African Islands. It has also certainly been 

 found at Tunbridge Wells, ami is in cultivation from this source ; but there are 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 iu its principal features, is loosely stated to have been found in 

 Devonshire ; but this indication of a British habitat is also open to suspicion, the garden whence it has 

 been distributed having boon enriched by Importations from Madeira. Whether Presl's C. canariauis 

 bo the same, there appears no means of determining, except by a reference to the Berlin herbaria, as he 

 has not published any definition or character of his plant ; and the same may be said of the C. aiurim 

 of Fee. The striking differences presented by the plants under notice ai-o (I,) their evergreen character 

 undor shelter, those kept in a cold greenhouse — from which, in fact, frost was not excluded — continuing 

 to grow in succession through the whole winter, while all other known forms of Cyttopterit ore quite 

 dormant ; (2,) tho toughness, not brittlonoss, of their pallid stoutish stipes, which are not easily broken ; 

 (3.) the greater size of the anterior basal pinnules — these two features being mentioned by Bolton as 

 Iwlonging to his plant ; nnd (4,) the glandular-hairy vestiture of the indusium, which is conspicuous in 

 the fresh plant, In all these peculiarities, the Madeira, and reputed Tunbridge Wells, nnd Devonshire 

 specimens perfectly agree ; but the latter is somewhat more slender iu the stipes, and mom acute in the 

 pinnules, than the others, which arc identical. This evergreen species, for such wo believe it to be, has, 

 in addition, a short, creeping rhizome, vigorous fronds of narrowish lanceolate outline, and distinct and 

 rather distant pinnules, of which tho larger are often nearly or quite again pinnate, nnd the lobes 

 separate. The spores are irregularly roundish oblong, muricate. 



rtrhspi it would bo more .-orTtttljr weirded u. a >pc#m, «hcn it might well bc*r the n«mo of C. uiftrtiit-. 



A 





I -rC- 



