138 FILICES 
Its vertical distribution is also wide, for it extends from sea-level to a height 
of 3,000 feet, where it usually assumes the form known as var. rheticum. 
The light and arrowy fronds arise in circular tufts from the rhizome. This 
is very large, extending itself some inches above the surface of the earth, 
and forming a base to the slender fronds. During early spring, when we 
wander into the woods for violets and primrose buds, we see numbers of 
little undeveloped fronds coiled up and thickly covered with their light 
brown scales, peeping from among the decayed leaves, which will soon be 
swept all away by the spring breezes. By the end of April, when the 
primrose needs no longer to be searched for, these little scrolls are unfold- 
ing too, and then they hang down, forming the figure of the shepherd’s 
crook, a dozen or more of the young fronds often in one clump. They 
live throughout the summer, towering above the hedge or woodland flowers, 
but they cannot bear the frost. There are several varieties of the Lady 
Fern. In the common form the lanceolate frond has a stalk usually about 
a third of its whole length, and scaly at the base. It is twice pinnate, 
the pinne being lanceolate and generally tapering. These are always again 
pinnate, the bases of these pinnules being sometimes connected by a narrow 
wing. The pinnules are lobed, often so deeply cut as to be pinnatifid, and 
the lobes are sharply toothed. 'The veining of this fern is very distinct. A 
mid-vein winds through each pinnule, alternate smaller veins arising from it, 
and these being again branched in an alternate direction. On the lowest 
branch, on the side nearest the top of the pinnule, about midway between 
the mid-vein and the margin, is the oblong slightly-curving cluster of cap- 
sules, covered by the indusium of the same form. Both the cluster and its 
covering, on the maturity of the capsules, contract at the ends and swell in 
the middle, thus becoming more curved, and assuming a more roundish 
form than in an earlier stage; the indusium also is then kidney-shaped. 
On one side the indusium is attached to the side of the vein on which it 
is seated; while on the other side, that which is towards the mid-vein, it 
becomes free, and is torn at the edge into thread-like segments. The fructi- 
fication is so abundant, that Sir J. E. Smith has remarked of this fern, 
‘if a single plant were uninterrupted in its possible increase for twenty 
years, it would cover an extent equal to the surface of the whole globe.” In 
Ireland, where it is common on all the bogs, this fern is used for packing 
fruit, as we in England use the common brake. It is sometimes used also 
by fishermen, for Mr. Newman remarks of the plant, “On landing at 
Warren Point, near Newry, I was rather surprised to see what quantities 
of it were employed in packing the herrings there exhibited for sale.” 
This is a most variable fern, and certain of its many varieties have been 
regarded by some botanists as permanent, and so distinct as to deserve to be 
classed as species. The variety A. latiféliwm is one of these. It is a much 
less delicate plant than the ordinary form. Its frond is lanceolate, somewhat 
oblong ; its pinnules are broad, leafy, and set more closely together, lobed 
and deeply toothed at the edges, with the curved clusters of capsules lying 
near the hollow between two lobes. It has been found near Keswick, 
in Cumberland. It is probable that it only acquires its peculiarities from 
the situation in which it grows. 
