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wild, i.e. under absolutely natural conditions among the 

 common specific types. Nearly all the forty odd species 

 have contributed, but three species stand out markedly 

 from the rest in the marvellous versatility with which Dame 

 Nature has endowed them. These are the Hartstongue 

 {Scolopendvium vulgare), 450 varieties; the Lady Fern (Athy- 

 riujii filix fcemina), 313 varieties; and the Shield Fern 

 (Polystichuiii angidave), 384 varieties ; the six species of 

 Buckler Ferns (Lastreas) following at a respectful distance 

 with a total of 259, and the common Polypody of our 

 hedgerows and old walls (Polypodmm vulgare), imitating 

 them with the respectable quota of 75. The Hartstongue, 

 it will be noted, stands out as the most varied of all, a fact 

 which must strike anyone very forcibly who is familiar 

 with that simple strap-fronded fern, as we may see it 

 starring old walls with dwarfed specimens, or pushing out 

 lush-growing bright green tongues from the hedge bottoms 

 of Devon, etc., where it revels most. This fern is, in point 

 of fact, the most remarkable fern in all the world as regards 

 its protean character. It is worth while to study it a bit 

 to see how it has managed to assume 450 distinct forms. 

 The plant normally consists of a radiating bunch of fronds, 

 consisting of a bare stalk some inches long, surmounted by 

 a strap-shaped, smooth, plain-edged leaf with two semi- 

 circular lobes at the point where the stalk enters the frond 

 and forms its midrib. The plain strap form continues for 

 some distance, and then tapers a little abruptly to a blunt 

 point. Now a very short search where plants are plentiful 

 will yield specimens with divided tips to the fronds, an 

 indication of that peculiarly faculty of forming tassels 

 which seems to pervade the fern family generally. In the 

 Hartstongue this capacity is evidenced in all grades, from 

 a. mere forking to a many-branched ramification on banched 

 or fanned lines finely cut, or coarsely cut, and in fact 

 varied in scores of ways on this particular line, culminating 

 in one instance (5. V. densiim Kelway), in a dense moss-like 

 ball of vegetation, in which all semblance of the frond 



