LOPHODIUM MULTIPLOEUM. 



153 



that the accustomed eye acknowledges to be distinct : this is 

 the case with the eight Lophodia ; whether they are properly 

 termed species, varieties, or forms, matters but little ; they are 

 objects with which all cultivators are intimately acquainted, and 

 therefore cultivators, as well as inquirers, will be glad of names 

 whereby to designate them. In conformity with this view, I 

 have separated and named as species all the forms but one, and 

 that one I now propose to describe as a variety. 



This plant, for which I propose the name 

 of " nanum," and of which a figure is given 

 in the margin, rather less than the natural 

 size, is dwarf, rigid, and convex in every 

 part, and usually of a very dark green co- 

 lour, sometimes inclining to brown. The 

 clusters of capsiiles are large, very distant, 

 very dark-coloured, and conceal, rather than 

 are covered by, a small shapeless involucre, 

 on which I have never discovered the glands 

 observable in the normal form of the plant. 

 It is of frequent occurrence in the boggy and 

 hill districts of Scotland and Ireland, and I 

 have seen it, although more sparingly, on 

 the mountains of Wales, and in the woods 

 of Sussex and Kent. Its character did not 

 appear changed by cultivation for two years 

 at Leominster ; and Mr. Tatham, who has 

 paid much attention to this form, informs me that he has ob- 

 served it in one station for twenty years, but that it never 

 attains a greater size, although the normal state of L. multiflo- 

 rum, in the same locality, attains a height of three feet. 



CttltttCt. 



Lophodium multiflorum grows freely in cultivation : planted 

 in rich vegetable mould, it attains an enormous size : it should 

 be abundantly supplied with moisture. 



