892 



members, of promise and energy, to enter into the pursuits for which 

 the Society was established. 



Undescrihed Variety of Blechiium Spicartt. 



Mr. Kinahan read a paper ' On an Undescribed Variety of Blech- 

 num Spicant.' 



The author said : — " It is my intention, this evening, to place on 

 our annals a notice of some varieties, or rather monstrosities, of ferns, 

 most of them unnoticed hitherto in this country, and one, at least, 

 hitherto undescribed. Many authors inveigh against the study of 

 these monstrosities, saying it arises from a depraved and puerile 

 taste ; yet the student of morphology must deem them interesting, 

 since it is by the exception the rule is best shown. Again, they may 

 often be of use in distinguishing between two allied species, as we 

 find ofttimes a monstrosity in one species not found in a closely- 

 resembling one. There are, also, strange analogies pervading certain 

 classes, and that irrespective of natural family or outward conforma- 

 tion, the same form of monstrosity sometimes occurring in widely- 

 removed genera. Into these points I will not at present enter more 

 fully, as I hope to return to the subject before the end of your session. 

 I shall now content myself by laying the growing specimens before 

 you, and briefly pointing out their analogies, merely adding that these 

 irregularities of form do not arise, as some suppose, solely from culti- 

 vation, as the same form may be found under conditions diametrically 

 opposite, as regards abundance or absence of moisture, a shade, rich- 

 ness or barrenness of soil, &c. The first I shall notice is the striking 

 variety of Blechnum Spicant, Roth. It was found in July, near Up- 

 per Lough Breagh, county Wicklow, and has not been hitherto noticed 

 by any author. The nearest approach to it is a frond figured by Dr. 

 Deakin, in his ' Florigraphia Britannica,' which is identical with the 

 variety of the same plant of which 1 now show you specimens, ga- 

 thered in the counties of Carlow, Clare, and Waterford. To this 

 form, the name of multijidum may with propriety be given ; while, 

 for that first mentioned, ramosum would be appropriate. The two 

 differ materially : first, multifidura is inconstant, and not permanent, 

 i. e., neither affecting all the fronds of the plant, nor remaining con- 

 stant under cultivation ; while ramosum both affects all the fronds, 

 and remains permanent under cultivation : — secondly, multifidum has 

 the apices of the fronds simply dichotomous, and distinct to their 

 extremity, the main mid-vein running out to the extremity of each 

 division of the frond, &c., each of the subdivisions terminating in a 



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