REMARKS ON LASTREA ULIGINOSA. 179 
it. The adult plant, in consequence of the dry state it was in 
when planted, has not, up to the present time, produced a single 
frond, although it made two abortive attempts to do so during 
the past summer; but the largest of the offsets has grown ad- 
mirably well,—the first frond which it produced was about twelve 
inches long, quite destitute of pinnz upon its lower half, whilst 
those upon the upper half were broader and more crowded than 
in L. uliginosa or either of its allies. I showed it to several 
botanists and cultivators, and they were quite as much puzzled 
with it as I was myself. Hach frond which it has subsequently 
produced has gradually advanced towards the normal state of 
L. uliginosa, so that now I feel certain that it is quite identical 
with some plants which I brought from Oxton Bog, in Notting- 
hamshire, some few years ago, and that the abnormal frond 
which it first produced was (to use the words of an eminent 
Pteridologist) a tendency to masquerading under cultivation, al- 
though that is a freak which it cannot be often accused of, for 
whilst in its wild state it is frequently very difficult to distin- 
guish from L. spinosa; under cultivation it recedes further from 
that species. 
Five years ago I visited Bawsey Heath, near Lynn, which is 
another recorded habitat for L. wliginosa, and I recollect to have 
seen plants with the same appearance which I observed at Wy- 
bunbury, and growing under the same circumstances with L. 
cristata and L. spinosa. But so satisfied was I that it was 
nothing more than an elongated state of the latter, that I 
brought no plant away with me, which omission I am now sorry 
for; had I done so, and tested it by cultivation, there is little 
doubt that it would have proved to be identical with those from 
the other two stations. 
An opinion has been advanced that this plant may be a 
hybrid between its two nearest allies, and certainly a great deal 
may be said in favour of such an hypothesis: first, its more 
recent discovery being unknown to British botanists until some 
plants were brought by me from Oxton Bog, in Nottingham- 
shire, eight years since; secondly, the intermediate appearance, 
in habit, form, and vernation, between this plant and its two sup- 
posed parents; thirdly, its having been found in three separate 
and distant stations, growing in close proximity to them; and 
lastly, its comparative scarcity in those stations, from which 
