FERN TRIBE 139 
The variety termed 4. rhaticum is very distinct. It has more slender, 
twice-pinnate fronds than any other form of the Lady Fern, and its pinne 
and pinnules are smaller. The narrow lanceolate frond is erect, and rarely 
more than two feet high ; the pinne are taper pointed, and the very narrow 
pinnules end in a sharp point. Their edges, which are somewhat bluntly 
toothed, are rolled under so as almost to hide the serratures. 
The variety 4. molle has a short stalk, with broad and short scales. The 
frond rarely exceeds a foot in height, and is usually erect, and of a bright 
green colour. Its outline is egg-shaped and lanceolate. It is pinnate, 
having its lower pair of pinne short and turning downwards. The pinnules 
are flat and toothed, and connected at their base to the mid-rib by a narrow 
wing. The clusters of fructification are distinct. 
Other forms are produced by culture, some of which are very singular. 
Thus the variety multifidum has the tips of the frond and of the branches 
cut into numerous segments so as to form a tassel. This, too, is the case 
with a dwarf variety called crispum, which, with its tasselled fronds, looks 
in the closed case like a clump of parsley. This form was first found on 
Orah Hill, Antrim, Ireland, and has since been gathered from Braemar, in 
Scotland. Some of these varieties, both natural and cultural, produce a vast 
number of little bulbils on their fronds, by which the plant may be propa- 
gated with ease. The Lady Fern was formerly called Polypédium filix-feémina, 
and later botanists have termed it Asplénium filix-femina, Athyrium being 
but a section of the genus Asplenium. 
10. ScALY SPLEENWORT (Céferach). 
Common Ceterach, or Scaly Spleenwort (C. officinérum).—Fronds 
linear-lanceolate, pinnatifid, covered beneath with chaffy scales; segments 
blunt. This fern is readily distinguished from any other British plant. It 
varies very little in form, and the whole of its under surface is thickly 
clothed with brown scales. The fronds are from two or three to six inches 
long, very thick, tough and leathery, the upper surface of a dark green hue, 
slightly downy, and having a brown edge, in consequence of the projection 
beyond the margin of the scales which are beneath. The outline is long, 
narrow, very deeply divided into rounded lobes, which are often again 
notched or cut into segments, and they stand in an oblique position towards 
the mid-rib. The whole of the under side is of rich brown colour from the 
dense mass of scales, and the short stalk is also scaly. 
The thick texture of the Fern renders the veining indistinct, and it can 
only be seen in the young fronds, which appear in May. A vein enters 
from the lower corner of the lobe, winding towards the top; the lateral 
veins branch in an alternate direction; and these are again forked towards 
their summits, crossing each other somewhere near the margin. The sori lie 
along the sides of these forked veins in a very regular manner, being at first 
quite hidden by the scales, but afterwards standing up distinctly from them, 
though, being brown and chaffy like the scales, the two are easily confounded 
except by a close observer. 
The short tough roots of this fern insinuate themselves effectually into 
the crevices of walls, and the tufts of Scaly Spleenwort are not uncommon on 
18—2 
