242 LASTREA DILATATA AND ITS VARIETIES, [AugUSt, 



It seems to be a larger grower but slender^ its parts being small 

 like those of micromera. The pinnules are from three-quarters 

 to one inch and a half long, with small distinct oblong or some- 

 times slightly falcate lobes, deeply cut into smaller lobes or teeth. 

 Its finely divided condition makes it a very elegant plant. 



The variety robusta from the lowlands of Dumfriesshire is 

 again quite unlike any of the foregoing. It is tall and very stout, 

 with crowded, broadly-ovate stalked pinnules, the lobes of which, 

 the basal ones at least, are rather ovate than oblong ; the teeth 

 are small but spreading in the way of coUina and grandidens. 



The foregoing are all varieties in Avhicli the development is of 

 a normal character, but there are some fine-looking novelties of 

 the interrupted or abnormal series. The most striking of these 

 we propose to name Blakei, after Mr, James 131ake, by whom it 

 was found near Aberdeen, It is a tall upright plant, resembling 

 alta just noticed, and is indeed evidently a depauperated form 

 whicli has originated from that variety. The whole of the frond 

 is affected by that irregular development of the parts to which 

 Fern fanciers owe some of the most highly prized sports of the 

 Fern family ; this is so completely the case in the var. Blakei, 

 that the frond becomes symmetrically unsymmetrical, if such a 

 paradox can be conceived, and it is this which, along with the 

 tall oblong outline, is the peculiar feature of the plant. 



We must just mention ramosa, another type of variation, in 

 which the stipes and rachis become forked so as to produce a 

 branch frond. It is a plant of Scottish origin we believe, having 

 come to us through the Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh and 

 Glasgow. This is a variation of the dumetorum sub-species. 



In noticing a short time since some of the more remarkable 

 new forms of Lady Fern, we should not have omitted to mention 

 as the finest of all the crested forms, and certainly a most charm- 

 ing ornamental Fern, Athyrium F. f. Elworthii, a "seedling" 

 raised by Mr. Elworthy, of Nettlecombe. It is of the multifidam 

 and corymbiferum class, with fine bold crests at the tips of its 

 fronds and pinnae, and the pinnules exhibiting also more or less 

 of a crested character. 



The plants to which this very rapid sketch refers are all such 

 as Fern-fanciers would welcome to their gardens. 



