74 ATHYRIUM FILIX-r(EMINA. 



AcROCLADON, Moove. (Plate XXXVIII.) — This variety is 

 worthy of the title of "Queen of Lady Ferns;" indeed its 

 exquisite foliage is unequalled in the whole range of British 

 botany, and, at the present time, it is at once the rarest and 

 most remarkable of the British filices. Hitherto barren, plants 

 have only been obtained by division, a slow process, which in 

 eight years has not yielded as many plants. There is, there- 

 fore, no immediate likelihood that this much-coveted prize will 

 become generally distributed. Indeed, so slowly has this 

 charming Fern been increased, that the discoverer, Mr. C. 

 Monkman, of Malton, has had to exercise seven years' patience 

 before obtaining a specimen for his own collection. The 

 original plant was found by Mr. Monkman growing by a 

 road-side on the moor-track between Byland and Rivaulx 

 Abbeys, in Yorkshire. There were a few other Lady Ferns 

 in company, all of which were quite normal; and, although 

 various botanists have carefully searched the station many 

 times, no second plant of acrocladon has been met Avith, nor 

 has even a slight divergence from the normal form of Athy- 

 rium been found. The discoverer presented his plant to Mr. 

 A. Clapham, of Scarborough, in whose possession it has since 

 remained. In 1863 that gentleman could boast of a plant 

 (the original one) fully two feet high, and as much in 

 diameter, — a mass of the most exquisite foliage, to which 

 no word-picture can ever do justice. When found the young 

 seedling bore a general resemblance to the variety crispum or 

 Smithiiy but it was soon seen to be distinct, and with groAvth 

 became entirely so. The fronds upon Mr. Clapham's plant 

 have been two feet long, having no definite form. The rachis, 

 stout at the base, divides near the crown, the divisions con- 

 tinuing to fork many times without any regularity whatever, 

 forming a densely ramified mass of foliage. Although the 

 variety crispujn gives a good idea of the young state of 

 acrocladon, the latter, when mature, does not possess any 

 resemblance to the former. Acrocladon, indeed, is vigorous 

 and erect in growth. The apices of the frondial divisions, 

 and those of the irregular pinnse, are all densely tasseled, or 

 crested; and the pinnse and pinnules are unsymmetrically 

 erosely toothed. So far as Mr. Monkman has observed, the 

 varietv is barren. The illustration is from a frond contributed 



