DFBUN NATXTKAL HI8T0RT SOCIETY. 61 



or that in which the parts of the original type are found contracted. For this 

 and its sub- variety it is proposed to use the names Laciniatum and Truncatum 

 — both names suggested to me by Mr. Wollaston. They consist essentially in 

 the absence of some organ or part of the plant, and bear the following defini- 

 tion: — Laciniatum, variety — frond less developed than normal, often reduced to 

 a mere midrib ; pinnse and pinnules contracted, often reduced to a mere line, or 

 absent ; epidermis, normal or puckered, sinuated and thickened at its margins, 

 often ending in a hem within the edge of the frond ; edges of the frond gene- 

 rally waved and cut ; nervures generally produced beyond, or else terminating 

 abruptly in the margin of the leafy expansion; outline linear, not curled or 

 crisped ; veins often very irregular in their distribution, often crossing one ano- 

 ther in their course ;• generafiy fruitful. Examples — Pol. angulare (var. stric- 

 tum Kin.): Phyl. scolopendrium, var. marginatum (Wol.). Truncatum, sub-va- 

 riety — frond, contracted ; segments either lobed or reduced to a mere midrib ; 

 generally symmetrical ; the apices of the pinnje and pinnules often truncated, 

 and then utisymmetrical ; nervures as in laciniatum ; generally barren. Ex- 

 amples — Am. ruta muraria, sub-var. truncata (K.). These groups, especially the 

 variety, present a most extraordinary variety of forms, agreeing all in the one 

 character of absence of some normal part of the fern. They appear to be di- 

 vided into several groups, according to the element affected, but unfortunately 

 we do not always find the same element affected two successive years. The ge- 

 neral type of the class is always adhered to : one year the deficiency occurring 

 in one set of elements, and the next, perhaps, in another ; however, when the 

 substance of the frond is present, we find it cut and lobed, though sometimes it 

 is entirely wanting. The following, or, in fact, any of the elemental parts of 

 the fern, may be wanting. The green colouring matter — the frond variegated 

 and lobed on the edges, as Ph. scol., var. sub-variegatum (Wol.); Aspl. A.N., 

 var. variegatum (W.). The substance of frond — either in part, the frond lobed 

 in various ways ; or entirely the pinnae and pinnules or frond itself reduced to 

 mere lines, as Pol. Aug., var. strictum (Kin.). The epidermis deficient in some 

 way, its edges scolloped atid tucked, often pitted and thickened ; the apices end- 

 ing in a spur of fibres, as in the forms marginatum, &c., of Phyl. scol. and Lo- 

 raaria spicant, var. marginatum (W.). In fact, every conceivable variety of 

 deficiency occurs, and renders the study of numerous examples of this class ne- 

 cessary for the comprehension of the whole. This variety is much less perma- 

 nent under cultivation than either of the others, but still sufficiently so to be dis- 

 tinguished from the sub-variety. Some of its forms are most beautifully sym- 

 metrical, in so much that they have been mistaken for species, as the Polysti- 

 chum, found at Kew, with angularly linear leaflets, which bears the name of 

 Angustatum, and has the habit of producing bulbillscf in the axils of its leaves; 



meetlnp, I stated that on one point I was still in doubt— viz. Jiow far varieties combine inter se. Since 

 then I have been enabled to arrive at the following conclusions on this subject— opportunely, indeed, 

 aa It completes the scheme I was endeavouring to lay before you :— I find that these combinations do 

 take place occasionally, and that they, with a very few exceptions (more, I am inclined to think, seem- 

 ing than real), take place only between the sub-groups of the same group— i. e., between variety and 

 Tailety,and sub-variety and sub-variety. 'Hiese conclusions, as well as those laid before you on for- 

 mer occadons, were aU confirmed by examinations of, I believe, the two best collections of tlie kind 

 In England— viz., tliat of Dr. II. Allchin, In London, and that of G. R. Wollaston, Ksq., in Kent. 

 Through the kindness of both these gentlemen, I have been much indebted both for Infomiation re- 



farding the plants and by the opportunity afforded me of examining forms, many of them unioue. In 

 Ir. Wollaston's collection tliere is a form of hart's-tongue, raised by him from see<l, widcli well illus- 

 trates the combination of forms. In it the lower portion of the frond represents the var. ladniafttm, 

 while the apex represents the var. eristatuiH, In one frond this was shown in a remarkable maimer j 

 the stipe was cleft, one i>ortion was diminished to a fibrous liook, about a quarter of an incli long, the 

 other lK)re a frond, tlie base marglnate serrate, and the apex divldeii into two, tlie one division cris- 

 tate^ the other rc<luccd to a branched lash of bare fibrils. The establi.shment of this fact clears up the 

 only diftlculty in arranging the varieties I met witli, establisljing an additional class of mixed forma. 

 Thus, tlie Atljyriuni, found in .Joyce Country by Robert Gmming, and figured by Newman, as weU, I 

 believe, as the" form found by Mr. A. Smith, near Belfast, are to bo referred to a form Laciniato-crista- 

 tum, being a combination of laciniatum and cristatum. 



• As in Fh. scoioiHjndrium : polvschides (Ray), wliich poflflesses a netted venation. 

 + This hal)it of producing bulblLs Is foimd in two other species of British ferns— vix,, Am. Rata 

 muraria, where the fronds are generally nmltlfld and fruitful, and In PhyL scolopendrium (Galwav, 

 Dr. Allchin), where the fronds arc normal and fruitful. 



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