88 FERN FREAKS. 
ducing a frilled margin; but instead of the leafy part being 
attached to the whole length of the midrib, it was separated near 
the apex, and the last half-inch of the midrib stood out like a 
spine from the surface of the leaf. All the fronds upon the 
plant were similarly developed ; in fact, the variety is one which 
becomes permanent, and is known as cornutum. 
Many ferns that have compound leaves such as the Male Fern 
and the Lady Fern, become very strangely developed, every 
minute division of the pinne being extended into a tassel. This 
variety, which is very pretty, is generally a favourite with fern 
growers. It is described in each species by the term cristatus. 
I have several times gathered, both in Cheshire and in Glou- 
cestershire, a variety of the common Male Fern which as far as I 
know, seems to have escaped notice, Itis a very showy variety, 
growing much larger and more lax than the plant usually grows. 
The fronds are barren, or produce only a few sori, when the 
indusium seems to be suppressed altogether. The pinne become 
very long and broad—not so taper as usual, but the sides parallel 
and then abruptly contracting—not to a point, but to a rounded 
apex. The pinnules are also very large, and they again are cut 
into round lobes. I do not know whether this variety is per- 
manent, but as most of the monstrosities of ferns can be per- 
petuated, I presume that it would be permanent if brought into 
a garden. 
I have a dried frond of the common Prickly Fern (Polystichum 
aculeatum) which has taken a very remarkable form. It grew in 
my own garden, and had been but recently transplanted from 
the woods; so that the change of soil and situation probably 
exercised an influence uponits growth. The lower half of this 
frond has all the characters of P. acudeatum, and differs in no 
way from the rest of the fronds upon the plant; but at this 
point it abruptly changes, and the upper half exactly resembles 
P. lonchitis, not only in general form, having short undivided 
pinne, but even in the absence of brown scales upon the rachis. 
Whether this frond shews that aculeatum and lonchitis are perma- 
nent varieties of one species, as some botanists think, I do not 
