FERN FREAKS. 87 
Ferns are very prone to become viviparous, especially in cul- 
tivation—indeed, all the curious changes observed take place 
more freely when ferns are cultivated than they do in a state of 
nature. Our own Black Maiden-hair Spleenwort (Asplenium 
adiantum-nigrum) nearly always produces young plants on the 
edges of the leaves when grown in a greenhouse or under a glass 
case, and many of the exotic ferns are particularly apt to do so, 
and the fronds then have a very pretty and curious appearance 
thus fringed with a number of tiny plants. The young plants 
themselves fall off after a while and take root in the soil. 
We often observe fronds of ferns that are forked, sometimes 
very near to the point, sometimes branching as low as half way 
down the leaf, and occasionally divided even below the green 
part of the frond. Sometimes one or two of the pinnew are forked 
as well. This development takes place in almost all, if notin all of 
our British ferns, and I have myself collected fronds of Blechnum 
boreale, Polypodium vulgare, Polystichum aculeatum, Athyrium 
Jilix-femina, and of Scolopendrium vulgare that were so divided, and 
doubtless instances could be adduced of the same structure in 
many other kinds. One year I found a plant of Lady Fern, of 
which almost every leaf was forked, but the variety has not been 
permanent, for it has since produced leaves of the usual form. 
The Hart’s-tongue (Scolopendrium vulgare) is perhaps more prone 
to divide than any other species. One form has its fronds forked 
near the apex or near the base, the branches again and again 
divided, and the ultimate tips of the leaf spread out into irregular 
fan-like expansions, constituting a very marked and peculiar 
variety which is constant under cultivation. It is called multi- 
fidum. This fern also produces several other pretty varieties. One 
called crispum has the edges of the leaves beautifully waved and 
curled in somewhat the same fashion as the leaves of a curled 
kale. 
The Editor of this Magazine received lately from a corres- 
 pondent in Scotland a very remarkable variety of this fern. ‘The 
- frond was similar in general aspect to tho one last described, the 
leafy portion being more developed than the midrib, thus pro+ 
