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In outline they are almost triangular, the lowest pinnae 

 being very long and tripinnate or thrice divided, which is 

 the case with the upper ones but on less and less marked 

 lines as they approach the frond tip. This fern forms no 

 cup-like caudex like the Male Fern, the fronds rise 

 irregularly, with bright green, brown-scaled stalks which 

 unroll ball fashion, not forming hooks, the brown scales 

 being thus very evident, though eventually falling off to 

 a large extent. The fronds, when the plants are full grown 

 and well-developed, may be three or four feet long and spread 

 out in a very handsome fashion, but on smaller plants 

 in exposed situations they are more erect. The 

 species is subject to a good deal of minor variation, 

 and it is due to this that the older botanists thought 

 fit to name as separate species the ferns known as L. 

 iiliginosa, L. spimdosa, and L. cvistata. The last-named is 

 not a crested form at all, and it is difficult to imagine why 

 such a name was given. It is an erect-growing narrow 

 form with a long bare stalk and rather short side- 

 divisions, set on at some distance from each other, the 

 frond having a narrow lanceolate outline. This is, there- 

 fore very distinct from the typical L. dilatata, but is 

 regarded as the extreme type of a range of intermediate 

 forms embracing L. uliginosa and L. spimdosa among the 

 gradations, rather than a distinct species. 



L. ^MULA. 



The Hay-scented Fevn. 



This may be described as roughly resembling a smaller 

 form of L. dilatata, the fronds being of very similar make in- 

 deed. It is, however, distinguished by its subdivisions being 

 crispy and its caudex more caespitose or bunchy, con- 

 sisting of a mass of embryo fronds far more numerous 

 than those which are evident in the other allied species. 

 It affects moors, hillsides, woods and hedges, and in favour- 

 able positions may produce fronds a foot and a half long in 

 pretty clumps. It usually crops up locally in more or less 



