374 FERNS. 



half to two and a-half inches in hreadth, is in a 

 slightly sinuous margin, an occasional division of the 

 apex into two or more lobes, and a disposition to 

 become somewhat ragged ; and this by no means 

 general, but only one or two leaves on a plant. 



" Similar experiments with other varieties and 

 species have been attended with corresponding results. 

 The tufted end of the variety { Crista galli' of the 

 same species (Scolopendrium vulgare) produced many 

 hundreds of plants, all, with scarcely an exception, 

 equally complex with the original, or more so ; and, 

 what is more remarkable, the parent-plant was up- 

 wards of two years old before it began to develop 

 its peculiar character, while the progeny raised from 

 it were all prominently characteristic in the first 

 leaves. 



" With such forms as Neplirodium molle corym- 

 biferum, Lastrea filix-mas crfatata, Scolopendrium 

 marginatum, &c., where the entire frond has become 

 deformed and the whole of the venation abnormal, 

 the plants raised from spores procured from any part 

 of the leaf reproduce the variety with little or no vari- 

 ation. Out of some thousands of Filix-mas cristata 

 seedlings, only one reverted to the normal form, and 

 two others closely approach the angustata of Sim, all 

 the remainder being identical with the parent/' 



At present, our recognition of this peculiarity extends 

 scarcely beyond British species ; though some signal 

 exceptions have occurred, as in the case of Nephro- 

 dium molle. Perhaps, however, many of what are 



