112 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



flat or nearly flat pinnules, and from having a pale green colour 

 tinged with reddish-brown, it has become deep green. It has, how- 

 ever, retained the erect habit and narrower parallel-sided form of 

 frond much more abrupt at the base than in var. a. Specimens similar 

 to this garden form abound in woods. They have usually a long 

 stout stipes, which is sometimes green, but perhaps more often dull 

 vinous-red, which colour is continued through the rachis. 



Var. y should perhaps be regarded as a subspecies. I know it only 

 from specimens and a living root sent me by Mr. H. C. Watson. It 

 has more the aspect of var. /S than of var. a, but has a still stouter 

 and longer green stipes, with the scales more numerous, more per- 

 sistent, and of a darker maroon colour than is usual in vars. a and fi, 

 and has a more rigid lamina, broader in proportion to its length, and 

 tripinnate, with the ultimate segments linear-oblong, with two or three 

 narrowly triangular teeth towards the apex. The dimensions of a 

 well-developed specimen are stipes 2 feet, lamina 2 feet 6 inches by 

 1 foot ; lowest pinnse 5 to 5^ inches in length ; the lamina broadest, 

 about jf of its length above the base, not beyond the middle, as in 

 var. a. The spores have the yellow colour more tinged with 

 brown, and a surface with more conspicuous and more numerous 

 blunt tubercles than in vars. a and /3. Mr. Watson considers this 

 the Athyrium incisum of Newman, and it is very probable that 

 Mr. Newman's description was taken from var. Watsoni ; but he says 

 the " geographical range " of his incisum is " general, it requires only 

 damp vegetable soil, shade, and absence from molestation." I have 

 therefore little doubt that under his incisum he included the large 

 and more divided forms of vars. a and /3. Mr. T. Moore's var. incisum, 

 which he describes with " fronds drooping," must be a divided form 

 of our var. a. Aspidium irriguum, Sm. Engl. Bot. No. 2199, and 

 Engl. Fl. vol. iv. p. 296, found at Tunbridge Wells, is a young state 

 of var. /3. 



Lady-fern. 



SPECIES II.-ATHYRIUM ALPESTRE. Milde. 



Plates 1871, 1872. 

 Milde, Fil. Europ. p. 53. 



Asplenium alpestre, Mettenius in Abh. Senkenb. Naturf. Gesellsch. 1859, p. 242. 

 Phegopteris alpestris, Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Soc. Lips. p. 83. 

 Polypodium alpestre, Hoppe. Moore, Nat. Print. Brit. Ferns, Vol. I. p. 76. Hook. fil. 



Stud. Fl. ed. ii. p. 498. Hook. & Baker, Syn. Fil. ed. ii. p. 311. Koch, Syn. Fl. 



Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 974. 

 P. Ehseticum ' Pallas,' Fries, Summ. Veg. Scand. p. 82. Gren. & Godr. Fl. de Fr. 



Vol. III. p. 628. (Non Linn, teste Moore.) 

 Aspidium alpestre, Schkuhr, Krypt. Gen. p. 58. 

 Aspidium Rhaeticuni, Swartz, Syn. Fil. p. 59. 



Caudex rather stout, erect or oblique, closely covered by the bases 



