182 THE LADY FERN AND ITS KIN. 



length of three feet. The crosiers are of interest from 

 the colours they present early in the year. In some va- 

 rieties the stipes are a clear wine colour with light, thin 

 scales and contrast very prettily with the yellow-green of 

 the uncoiling blades. The blades themselves are on long 

 stipes and are exceedingly variable in the cutting of the 

 pinnules. Nearly a hundred varieties from Europe have 



been described. The com- 

 monest form with us is prob- 

 ably that with oblong-ovate, 

 acute, twice pinnate fronds 

 with the secondary pinnae 



Fruiting pinnule enlarged. again lobed Or toothed. The 



primary pinnae are about oblong-lanceolate, acute or 

 acuminate, and set at sufficient distances from each other 

 to render the frond light and graceful. Mr. B. D. Gilbert 

 has recently identified some twenty varieties from Amer- 

 ican localities, none of which are the results of cultivation. 

 This species is noted for having pinnules missing here 

 and there throughout the fronds. 



Ordinarily there is scarcely any difference in the ap- 

 pearance of fertile and sterile fronds. The sori are borne 

 in a double row 

 on each pinnule 

 and the indusia jjjj& 

 are attached to A* 

 the frond by a V 

 curving edge. A form from sunny thickets . 



When young they extend in the shape of a horse-shoe 

 across the veins which bear them. The novice who ex- 

 amines them at this stage of their growth may jump to 

 the conclusion that his plant is some species olAspidium 

 but later the sori become almost straight as in the true 



