DETOPTEEIS FttlX-MAS. 



193 



apex, elongate-triangiilar, the basal pair very short, and almost 

 equilateral, but having all the angles rounded, the succeeding 

 ones gradually increase in length, but the interspaces decrease ; 

 the lower pair of pinnee are pinnate, but the upper ones only 

 pinnatifid: pinnules adnate, and, except the basal pair, decur- 

 rent, very closely approximate, very 

 blunt and rounded, serrated; the teeth 

 of the serratures broad and blunt : 

 clusters of capsules reniform, generally 

 two, sometimes three, at the base of 

 each pinnule ; these form a series on 

 each side of the midrib of each pinna, 

 and are closely contiguous thereto. 



Two other forms stUl remain. 1. 

 The "recui-vum" of Francis (Anal. 36), 

 which was found by Mr. Cameron on 

 Snowdon, and is of dwarf habit, and 

 has all the ultimate divisions of the 

 fronds crisped and turned upivards, as 

 in Foenisecii. Mr. Francis says turned 

 down : but as the late Mr. Cameron 

 showed me his original plants, and 

 transmitted by my hands to London 

 the specimens upon which Mr. Francis 

 appears to have founded his named va- 

 riety, there is little doubt as to our 

 referring to the same form. We j)er- 

 haps use different terms to express the 

 same thing : the readers of the ' Phy- 

 tologist ' have seen that the word " re- 

 curved " may be understood as curved 

 upwards or curved dowmvards. My 

 friend, Mr. Pamplin, of Frith Street, 

 most obligingly presented me with living plants of this fern, 

 collected by himself : like Mr. Cameron's, they were of very 

 diminutive size and slow growth. 



2. Another strange example of variation occurs in the her- 

 barium of the late Mr. Winch, now in the possession of the 



2 c 



