POLYSTICHIM AKGUI.ARE. 



75 



in an elegant and beautiful manner. In very moist and rich 

 situations the leaves of Asplenium viride sometimes become 

 proliferous, tbi-owing out other leaves from their sides. There 

 is a variety of Asplenium marinum wherein the lobes are diHded 

 and subdivided; this has been named Adiantum trapeziforme. 

 The Polypodium camhricum is now known to be a Variety of 

 Poly podium vulgar e. There is also another variety of the same 

 plant, lately discovered by my esteemed friend Mr. Alexander, 

 of Halifax, in a wood near Bingley. There is a tall slender 

 varietv of Polypodium fragile which has been taken notice of, 

 and termed Polypodium rheticum. There is a variety of Tri' 

 chomanes Tunhrigense which grows in little caverns under moist 

 rocks, where the sun is excluded, and where the water, dripping 

 from the points of the leaves, enlarges them greatly; in this 

 state the plant has been taken notice of, and called Trichotnanes 

 pyxidiferum. The varieties of Asplenium scolopendrium are 

 many and very well known. Asplenium adiantum-nigrtimi 

 Polypodium aculeatum, and some others are likewise subject td 

 varieties." 



Thus so early as 1785 we find botanists describing varieties 

 of British Ferns. "We also find Bolton urging the cultivation 

 of British Ferns. He says, "]\Iany of the Ferns might with 

 great propriety be introduced into our botanic gardens; not 

 merely with a view to increase the number of plants in these 

 gardens, but also on account of the agreeable contrast they 

 produce when interspersed amongst plants of all the other 

 classes, of their own beautiful singularity, and of the great ease 

 with which they are procured and preserved. In the hot-house 

 or stove they become evergreens, and their beauty is greatly 

 improved in respect to colour and delicacy. AVhen planted in 

 pots, and placed amongst other plants, their soft, feathery, 

 silken clumps produce an efiect which must be pleasing to 

 every one." 



Bolton does not recognise the present species, figuring only 

 P. lonchitis and P. acideatum, no doubt confusing P. angulare 

 with the latter species, which indeed is so nearly allied to it 

 that in some of the varieties there is as much similarity to P. 

 aculeatum as to P. angulare. 



This most interesting Fern has an extended though somewhat 

 local range over England and Wales, being most plentiful in 



