206 Fern Varieties. [Sess, 
XI—FERN VARIETIES. 2 
By Mr 8. ARCHIBALD, Tomatin, InveRNEss, 
CoRRESPONDING MEMBER. 
(Read April 24, 1901.) 
In 1882 I contributed a paper on this subject,! in which I 
described briefly the circumstances which led me to search for 
varieties, and the district——a tolerably good one for the 
purpose—in which I was then located. About twenty more 
or less distinct varieties were exhibited and described. Since 
then I have added a few to my collection, and extended my 
knowledge of the distribution of some of the others, and now — 
have the pleasure of placing these before you. 
But first of all, one correction must be made in the list of 
those previously sent. The fern there called Lastrea dilatata, 
var. Brownii, proved on closer inspection to be an attenuated 
form of its near ally, Lastrea spinulosa, that form being the 
result of its habitat—in a hedge on the face of a low retaining © 
stone dyke. All the other varieties were, to the best of my _ 
knowledge, correctly named. 
The first variety I will notice is a very pretty form of the 
graceful little Bladder Fern (Cystopteris fragilis), the points 
of the fronds being bi-, tri-, or multi-fid. It was found on 
the banks of the Carity, near Kirriemuir in Forfarshire, and 
the character is quite permanent, as I have had the plants in 
pot for over a dozen years, and the fronds exhibited are last 
year’s growth. The next specimen is from the famous Den of 
Airlie. It is a variety of Polystichum aculeatum, in which ~ 
the pinnules are narrow, distant, acute, and pointing forwards, — 
the upper pinnules next the rachis being much larger than the — 
others. 
Last summer I noted some small plants of Blechnum boreale 
at the roadside near this place, in which most of the fronds 
were bifid. (There were only barren fronds on the plants.) 
In my collection of 1882 there was a very distinct variety | 
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1 See ‘Transactions, vol. i. pp. 78-80, “List of a Few Ferns and Fern- 
Varieties collected chiefly in the Parish of Kilmalcolm, Renfrewshire, 1881-82.” 
