288 BRITISH FERNS 



XIII 



Victori.k {Moore) 



Mr. James Cosh. Stirlingshire. 1861. 



1 ft. 6 in. 



Syil. CRUCIATO-CRISTATUM {JVoll .) 



By Mr. Wollaston, and from the original plant. It is difficult to 

 conceive how such an extreme deviation from the normal form 

 could have been produced in all its strange perfection without 

 gradual development, yet it would seem to have sprung directly bv 

 seed from some common Athyrium. 



Mr. Lowe has had his usual good fortune in his seedlings of 

 Victoria:, two of which have been figured and named by him 

 Victoria: magnificum, Victoria- gracile, 



Mr. Edwin F. Fox thus defines the peculiarities of this variety. 

 " A cruciate and crested Athyrium. In it we observe abortion of 

 secondary rachis at the first pair of pinnules, then an abnormal 

 development of this first pair — which is really a tertiary rachis — 

 upwards and downwards and away from the primary rachis, so as 

 to cross the similarly developed pinnules above and below them:— 

 apices of primary and tertiary rachides crested." 



