45 



protean species the veins carry the margin out irregularly, 

 forming long-pointed projections, in some cases doing this 

 so markedly as to indicate a strong tendency in the 

 Hartstongue to become pinnate or once divided like other 

 species. On the other hand, some of the normally divided 

 or pinnate species occasionally sport on "confluent" 

 lines, assuming more or less the undivided strap form ; 

 thus it is with Barnes' BlccJinum spicant lineavc, Stabler's 

 Asp. trick, confluens and others. 



As a rule, as we have said, the pinnae, pinnules and 

 pinnulets are practically reduced editions of the frond 

 itself, and under normal conditions reproduce its peculi- 

 arities on a smaller scale, and this as a rule is also the 

 case when crested and tasselled forms occur, a heavily 

 tasselled frond terminal being correlated with smaller 

 tassels to the pinnie and possibly still smaller ones to the 

 pinnules, in which case we term the form " percristate," 

 or crested throughout. The rule, however, has its ex- 

 ceptions, as in P. angulave gracile cvistatiiin Moly, in which 

 the pinnulets are very distinctly fanned ones, the pinnae 

 are but small crested, while the frond top is only just 

 tasselled at all. In some Lady Ferns bearing large bunch 

 crests, such as A. f.f. orbicnlare, gcuimatum, Caput nicdtism, 

 and others, the large tassels at tips of frond and pinnae 

 absorb, as it were, all the energy of the plant, and the 

 pinnulets are very small or all but aborted, while in such 

 forms as are termed " nudicaule '' the fronds consist of a 

 bare stalk, minus pinnae or pinnules, and only carrying 

 one dense bunch of tasselling. In fact there are many 

 varieties so abnormal that the original plan, together with 

 its vein system, are so affected that general rules do not 

 obviously apply at all. Thus in some Hartstongues the 

 primary simply forked vein system anastomoses, or forms 

 an irregular network, but wherever such network appears 

 it is always at the expense of symmetry of form. In many 

 exotic fern species a reticulated or netted variation is 

 specific, but in no case that we are aware of are Ferns thus 



