86 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



must refer them to the same form ; the Rev. Mr. Chanter's plant was 

 found at Hart! and, on the north coast of Devon. 



Var. e. alpina is frequent on mountains and on upland bogs. 



Var. £. lepidota is not known in the wild state ; it was said to have 

 been procured from Yorkshire. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 



An extremely variable plant, though it can scarcely be divided 

 into varieties in a botanical sense, so insensibly do the different forms 

 merge into one another ; whether we place the forms under two or 

 twenty varieties makes very little difference, with the exception of 

 the form lepidota, which is a doubtful native, and is certainly 

 distinct enough to be called a true variety, if not a subspecies. The 

 rootstock is remarkable for not breaking, i.e., it continues to grow 

 until it has attained a large size before it divides and forms new 

 crowns, in this forming a marked contrast to that of L. spinulosa. 

 The divisions of the caudex in the large wood forms of the plant are 

 often as thick as a man's arm, and are generally erect ; but some- 

 times the branches of the caudex when growing amongst dead leaves 

 or bushes, or even in bogs, become as slender and creeping as those of 

 L. spinulosa, but they differ in not constantly forming new crowns 

 before they have attained a large size. I suspect that this may 

 account for the statements of forms of L. dilatata " being nearly, if 

 not quite, as creeping as spinulosa" ('Phyt.' ser. ii. 1860, p. 229). 



I have numerous specimens, collected in Fife, with slender 

 creeping offshoots, produced from large crowns of ordinary L. dilatata. 

 The most puzzling forms are specimens of var. alpina, which I collected 

 in 1875, in the parish of Orphir, Orkney, growing in Naversdale and 

 Ryssadale. These had small crowns and often decidedly creeping 

 branches, and in many instances the scales were broad and pale- 

 coloured and the lamina narrow and parallel-sided. At the time 

 I collected these, I supposed them to be referable to the glandular form 

 of L. spinulosa, but a root which I brought to Bahnuto has produced 

 much divided triangular-deltoid fronds, which are clearly referable to 

 L. dilatata, although the scales are still broader than those of the 

 ordinary plant and concolorous. Usually the scales of L. dilatata are 

 broadly lanceolate and tapering, intermixed with smaller ones, they are 

 entire or slightly fimbriate, and have a brown or pitchy stripe down 

 the centre, but in the forms which Mr. Moore calls alpina (which is 

 probably a true variety) they are often broader and nearly concolorous. 



The shape of the lamina varies greatly, but it is almost always 

 broader than in L. spinulosa. I have fertile specimens from 5 inches 

 long by 1\ wide, to 3 feet long by 15 inches wide, while in a very 

 handsome form of alpina from Orkney the frond is 15 inches long 

 and 5 wide, with the fronds very delicate in texture and much 

 divided, and the scales broad, ferruginous, and nearly concolorous. 



