372 FERNS. 



an interesting memoir, " On the influence of the 

 Venation in the Keproduction of Monstrosities among 

 Ferns," * has recorded some very curious facts in this 

 direction. 



" In the first instance, a leaf from the multifid 

 variety of the common Hart's-tongue (Scolopendrium 

 vulgare, var. multifidum) had been procured, select- 

 ing one of the most distorted, and the spores from it 

 collected indiscriminately and sown. The plants com- 

 ing from these, to the extent of many hundreds, pre- 

 sented every grade of variation, from the simple 

 ligulate with a single acute apex, up to the complex 

 form of the parent, and beyond, or, as fern-fanciers 

 express it, ' greatly improving the sport;' and this not 

 in one direction only, but resulting in the production 

 of three distinct varieties. The direction of the veins 

 in the lower portion of the leaf from which the spores 

 had been taken, was all but normal, some parts 

 entirely so, upon which several of the sori had been 

 placed. But towards the upper and above the middle 

 portion of the leaf, the veins, losing their regularity 

 and parallelism, became somewhat zigzag and reti- 

 culate, the indusium only partly developed, the sori 

 smaller, more numerous, and nearer to the external 

 margin. In the extreme upper or multifid and crisp 

 terminal expansion, the mid-vein became broken up 

 into a number of nearly equal divisions, and these, 

 again, dividing and subdividing into a reticulate mass 

 of veins and venules. Instead of the regularly-formed 



* Annals and Magazine of Natural History for December, 1861. 



