ATHYRIUM FILIX-FCEMINA 83 



frills, fringes, tassels, and other decorative adjuncts. The Lady 

 Fern, in what we may consider its simple rustic garb, is beautiful 

 enough. Its fronds, which spring from erect rootstocks in tufts 

 rather than circlets, and which in very[ favourable situations may 

 reach a length of five feet, are usually nearly thrice divided ; see 

 Fig. 47, which represents the prevalent type. Independently of the 

 very marked varieties, or " sports," with which we shall presently 

 deal, it is so fertile in sub-varieties that if we examine a colony, say 

 in a long roadside ditch, we shall often find it difficult to match 

 exactly any two plants, so greatly will they vary in minor details, 

 habit of growth, and so on. The Lady Fern affects very moist 

 situations, and is perfectly deciduous, its fronds dying down in 

 the autumn quite irrespective of frost. As usual, botanists have 

 differed as to the genus to which this species belongs, no less than 

 twenty-four different names and eight different genera figuring 

 in a list of synonyms before us. This is accounted for to some 

 extent by the fact that the fructification, i.e. the spore heaps, are 

 indeterminate in shape, somewhat resembling a horseshoe, with 

 a more or less ragged indusium or skin-like cover in the middle of it. 

 It is thus differentiated from any other of our native species, but 

 quite a number of eminent botanists have ranked it with the 

 Asplenia, to the intense bewilderment of the British Fern specialist, 

 since, in his eyes, there is not the faintest resemblance to that genus 

 in any one of the characters. The Spleenworts are thoroughly ever- 

 green, have more or less leathery fronds, are denizens of well-drained 

 rocky habitats, and have their spore heaps in definite straight lines, 

 which even when much shortened never approach a horseshoe 

 form ; their spores are dark-coloured, small and corrugated, and 

 as a genus they are but little prone to " sport." The Lady Fern, 

 on the other hand, is perfectly deciduous, has soft-textured fronds, 

 grows in the soil proper in moist positions, has curved spore heaps, 

 which are never straight, the spores are large and smoothly egg- 

 shaped, and the species is one of the most variable in the world. 

 The British Fernist's bewilderment is not, therefore, to be wondered 

 at, and having expressed our own, we take leave of the subject. 

 Culture is easy ; the Fern is not dainty as to soil, and the compost 

 already mentioned suits it well. Water must not be spared, and 

 as the fronds are invisible in the winter, watering then, if the plants 

 be in pots, must not be omitted, since under natural conditions 

 the Lady Fern is bathed in moisture at that season, and if per- 

 mitted to become bone-dry will probably perish. With established 

 plants saucers are permissible. 



Abasilobum (see mediodeficicns). 



Acrocladon (see Plate I and Appendix No. IV). — This extra- 

 ordinary Fern was found wild by Mr. Monkman, by the roadside 

 on a Yorkshire moor, as a small seedling somewhat like crispum, 



