352 ASPLENIE^E. PART n. 



are forked, and occasionally crisped and wavy, and the 

 leaf-stem is shaggy with narrow membranaceous scales. 

 The caudex is very compact and deep-rooted ; it does 

 not much elongate, but increases slowly by the formation 

 of new crowns round the older, attaining considerable 

 bulk. From this the fronds rise in circular tufts to the 

 height of a foot or more, and attain from two to three 

 feet, in favourable shady localities. At first the tufts 

 are straight, but ultimately they radiate and bend out- 

 wards. This plant is exceedingly variable ; hundreds 

 of varieties have been found or raised in Great Britain. 

 Though twin sori are characteristic of the Scolopendriese, 

 they diverge somewhat in Camptosorus, a North Ameri- 

 can genus, sometimes called the Walking fern, from 

 its habit of throwing forward a bud on a thread-like 

 prolongation of the point of the frond, which becomes 

 established as a new growing centre, and thus carries 

 the plant onwards. 



The group of ferns called Diplaziese, another section 

 of the Aspleniese, typified by the genus Diplazium, is 

 altogether tropical. The sori are bilateral or double, but 

 placed back to back on the vein, exactly the opposite of 

 Scolopendriese ; so that the indusia, instead of opening 

 face to face, open in opposite directions. The species 

 are rather numerous, and embrace much variety of form 

 and character. 



To the Aspleniese proper belongs one of our common- 

 est species, the Athyrium Filix-foamina, or Lady Fern, 

 which, when growing in moist shady places, is one of 

 the most elegant of British ferns. Its bipinnate frond 

 varies from a broad almost ovate outline to a linear 

 lanceolate form. The numerous fronds often spring from 

 the caudex in a vase-like arrangement, to the height of 

 four or five feet, those in the centre nearly erect, but 

 the outer ones, drooping around in all directions, form- 

 ing a tuft of lovely feathery foliage. The sori have 



