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fully grant the conspicuous difference of appearance and characters 

 in single fronds ; and this difference is as apparent in a living as in a 

 dried state, at least so far as I could judge in the ragged condition of 

 the tuft, which seemed to have been wantonly lashed by the walking- 

 stick of some non-botanical tourist ; though the growth of the whole 

 plant is precisely like that of our common Athyrium. Further, the 

 same hedgebank abounds with lady-fern of the ordinary form, and I 

 searched in vain for intermediate states. But, on the other hand, this 

 hedgebank bounds a somewhat boggy field, closely adjoining a deep 

 bog. Another hedgebank of the same field produces a very fine and 

 curious variety of Lastrea dilatata, having the lower pinnae greatly 

 dilated and turned round so far that their plane is nearly perpendicu- 

 lar to that of the general frond. Now here is an obvious instance of 

 what is probably a frequent occun-ence, that is, a remarkable change 

 in the development of the fronds of ferns caused by the presence of 

 bog-earth. Of course the change does not take place universally, 

 and, even where it does take place, I do not suppose it to be uniform. 

 On the contrary, this abnormal growth (for so it must be called) ap- 

 pears to be quite arbitrary and capricious. I cannot refrain from 

 expressing somewhat more than a suspicion, that not Lastrea uliginosa 

 only, but also L. cristata will ultimately be found to be mere varieties 

 of L. spinulosa growing in bogs. A friend, who has visited the Lynn 

 station for both the former plants, tells me that their relative quanti- 

 ties differed considerably from what a resident botanist had led him 

 to expect ; which looks as if one were convertible into the other : and 

 1 have further learned from him the remarkable fact, that L. cristata 

 has its pinnae turned round precisely as in the above-mentioned variety 

 of L. dilatata which grows in the boggy hedgebank near Keswick. 

 On the whole, therefore, notwithstanding the occurrence of the typi- 

 cal lady-fern in close proximity, the curious appearance of our plant 

 may not unreasonably be referred to the action of the soil. Hooker 

 and Arnott speak of " intermediate states " from Kamtschatka and 

 Crete : Mr. Babington possesses a specimen from the latter locality, 

 belonging to the same (Heldreich's) collection. It is by no means 

 satisfactory, being quite young and imperfectly developed, but it is 

 precisely intermediate between the forms latifolium and molle, and 

 resembles some young plants which have been raised in the Cam- 

 bridge Botanic Garden from spores of latifolium. On the whole, I 

 regard the Keswick plant as an accidental state (not a variety) of A. 

 Filix-foemiua, bearing nearly the same relation to the typical variety 

 that the state trifidum (us I understand it) bears to the var. molle. 

 VOL. IV. 3 L 



