252 



HAIDENHAIPv SPLEENWOET. 



however, received a marked variety from the late Mr. Samuel 

 Gibson, of Hebden Bridge. The pinnae of this variety, instead 

 of being nearly entire, as is usually the case, are deeply pinna- 

 tifid, as represented in the figure in the margin, 

 and the pinnules or lobes are irregularly den- 

 tate. The specimens sent by Mr. Gibson are 

 perfectly without fructification, but I do not 

 know whether this is to be considered a cha- 

 racter of the variety, or incidental only to the 

 fronds I have received. The right-hand figure 

 Mij'A^ i^ ^ fac-simile representation of one frond as 

 ■=^^ regards form and size ; the left-hand figm-e re- 



presents a portion of a frond in which the divi- 

 sions are still more irregular. This beautiful 

 variety appears to have been known to our ear- 

 liest botanists, two previous figures existing in 

 their works ; neither of them, however, repre- 

 sents the fronds quite so deeply divided as in 

 the present instance. One figure is in Pluke- 

 net's ' Phytographia ' (tab. 73, fig. 6), the plant 

 being described in that author's ' Almagestum 

 Botanicum ' (9) as " Adiantum maritimum, segmentis rotun- 

 dioribus : " it is stated, on the authority of Sherard, to have 

 been found in Jersey. The second figure is in plate 315 of 

 Tournefort's ' Institutiones Rei Herbariee ; ' it is also noticed 

 in Dillenius's edition of Bay's ' Synopsis,' and by Smith, in the 

 ' English Flora,' where it constitutes the variety P. of Asple- 

 nium Trichomanes. The variety y. of Smith, to which that 

 author quotes Sir Bobert Sibbald's description, appears to have 

 little resemblance to the variety or even species in question, if 

 I may venture to judge from Sibbald's plate 3, fig. 4, to which 

 Smith refers ; but as to the correctness of the reference, I am 

 unable to speak, for Sibbald himself has, in no way that I can 

 discover, connected the text and the figure. Mr. Gibson's plant 

 was gathered at Kant Clough, four miles from Burnley, in Lan- 

 cashire : it was originally discovered there in 1833, and some 

 Xolants taken up at that date and planted in a garden at Halifax, 

 have been found to retain their remarkable character in culti- 

 vation. A very similar variety has been found in Devonshu'e 

 by the Rev. W. S. Hore, who has kindly sent me a specimen. 



