120 



WILLDENOW S FEEN, 



Mr. Pamplin was from a plant cultivated by Mr. Choules, for- 

 merly gardener to Lady Gtuildford ; it was found in a hedge 

 near Wimbledon, and is preserved in the Royal Botanic Gar- 

 den, at Kew ; and I possess a second, from Mr. WoUaston, 

 gathered by himself near Ambleside. My notice of the slender 

 j)innules of this plant has induced cultivators to call it " angus- 

 tatum." A third form has been found in Ireland by my kind 

 correspondent, Mr. Kinahan, whose unbounded zeal in the cause 

 of Natural History is exhibited in every report of the Proceed- 

 ings of the Dublin Natural- History Society. In this strange 

 and most abnormal form, the fronds are of small size, and all 

 the divisions atrophied or setiform. 



It is by no means uncommon for the slender pinnules of this 

 fern to become much subdivided : an extreme instance of this is 

 shown on the opposite page, in the figure of a pinna obligingly 

 sent me by the late Mr. S. Gibson, of Hebden Bridge. From 

 this meagre description, and the accompanying figure, cultiva- 

 tors have called the form " subtripinnatum." 



There is a property possessed by this fern, which is common 

 to many exotic, although I think not to any other British spe- 

 cies : I allude to the production of new plants from bulbillfe 

 which originate from the main or partial rachides at the axillte 

 of the pinnae or pinnules : this state of the plant was fully de- 

 sgribed by Mr. Kinahan under the name of " viviparum," in a 

 paper read before the Dublin Natural-History Society, in June, 

 1852 ; but was at that time very famihar to botanists residing 

 near London, and Mr. Wollaston had called my attention to it 

 long previously to the report of Mr. Kinahan' s paper. I am 

 indebted both to Mr. Wollaston and Dr. AUchin for sj^ecimens 

 beautifully illustrating this interesting character. The bulbs 

 are at first almost hidden in the profusion of chaffy scales with 

 which the species abounds, but soon throw out small circinate 

 fronds from their crown, and filiform radicles from their base, 

 which, stretching downwards, try to reach the earth. Taken 

 off m this state, and planted in any light soil, they grow with 

 rapidity, and soon form good strong plants, which possess all 

 the characters of the parents, however abnormal. 



