82 



ATHYRIUM FILIX-FCEMINA. 



bartonshire, in 1855, by Mr. Thomas Moore, of Chelsea. Stipes 

 red, and covered, as well as the rachides, with small glands, 

 giving the fronds a hoary appearance, not unlike a pubescence. 

 This variety bears resemblance to trifidum, having linear-oblong 

 approximate pinnules. Length sixteen inches; width four 

 inches and a half. Pinnjc distant below. Somewhat similar 

 varieties have been found in the Isle of Man, and at Virginia 

 Water, Surrey, by Dr. Allchin. My thanks are due to Mr. P. 

 Neill Fraser, of Edinburgh, for fronds. 



Fig. 394.— Middle pinna. 



PoLYDACTYLON, Moove. (Fig. 394.) — Found near Nettlecombe, 

 in Somersetshire, by Mr. C. Elworthy, aiid subsequently nearly 

 similar forms found at Whitby, Yorkshire, by Mr. W. Willison; 

 Tunbridge Wells, Kent, by Mrs. Delves; at Barnstaple, 

 Devonshire, by Mr. C Jackson; and at Windermere by Mr. 

 F. Clowes. This variety belongs to the incisuni type, and is 

 a monstrous form whose fronds have been found to' perish in 

 the autumn six weeks sooner than the variety multijidum. It 

 is both beautiful and ornamental in its form and habit. The 

 distinctive character of this charming Fern consists in the 

 apices of the pinna? being furcately divided into five or six 

 normal-looking points, being plane (not crisped.) The apex 

 of the frond is also two or three times forked. The fronds 

 are lanceolate, symmetrical, and eighteen or twenty inches in 

 length. The pinn;c distant below, oblong, and scarcely narrowed 

 below the three- or five-fingered termination to each pinna. 

 Pinnules oblong-lanccolatc and pinnatifid in a normal manner. 



