LADY FERN. 47 



are developed. The kidney-shaped indusium is responsible for 

 a lot of trouble among botanists, some of whom have placed the 

 Lady Fern in the genus Aspidium in consequence of it. The 

 shape of the indusium which rules in Asplenium is linear or 

 oblong, straight or but very slightly curved, and, therefore, 

 some authors, in consequence of the greatly curved indusium of 

 the Lady Fern, have placed it in the genus Athyrium, whilst 

 others regard Athyrium as only a sub-genus of Asplenium^ as 

 we have considered it here. Those who are opposed to this 

 view find considerable support in the fact that whereas other 

 Aspleniums are little given to variation, the Lady Fern is one of 

 the most variable of ferns (Plates 3, 45, 50). 



The varieties of the Lady Fern that have arisen under cultiva- 

 tion are a legion, and many of them have been so crossed and 

 modelled by fern-growers that they no longer present any like- 

 ness to the natural types. They are more admired by certain 

 persons on that account ; but we are of opinion that the native 

 grace of the wild fern is superior to all the cultivated mongrels 

 and monstrosities. 



The new fronds make their appearance from the bare crowns 

 of the rootstocks in April or May, a large number rising 

 simultaneously and unrolling with great rapidity. At this time 

 they are thickly clothed with red-brown scales, most of which 

 wither or fall off at a later date, and as they unroll they give off 

 the peculiar ferny odour of new meal in considerable strength. 

 In the autumn, at the first touch of frost, or sometimes without 

 it, the entire frond turns yellow and shrivels away. 



The Lady Fern is pretty generally distributed throughout the 

 British Islands, wherever there is moisture ; and in most places 

 it is to be found in abundance. We meet with it in the swampy 

 copse, the wet meadow, crowding the roadside drains, jutting 

 out in luxuriant plumy masses from a crevice between the 

 boulders of a waterfall, perched on a stone that divides the 

 turbulent waters of a mountain torrent, down in the valley 



