FERNS OP GEEAT BRITAIN. 49 



scaly, and the dark brown fibrous roots are very strong 

 and tougb. The stipes and rachis are sometimes smooth 

 and yellow, or densely clothed with pale purple scales. 

 A handsome variety, very similar to the common form 

 of the Male Fern, but larger, often attains the height of 

 four, or even five feet. It is by some writers called 

 L. indsa. Its pinnules are longer and more pointed, and 

 their edges more deeply cut, the lateral branches of veins 

 more numerous, and the clusters extending over a larger 

 part of the pinnule. A stunted variety, about a foot 

 high, in which the pinnides become rounded lobes, and 

 the fructification is diminished so as to form a line only 

 on each side of the mid-vein of the pinnae, is called 

 L. ahbrevidta. The former variety is not unfrequent ; the 

 latter is found rarely, in woods and on banks in Cumber- 

 land and Yorkshire. A very singular form of this fern 

 is sometimes seen, in which the points of the pinnae 

 spread out into a kind of fringe, so that the top of the 

 frond looks like a tassel. A similar change occurs also 

 in the Lady JPem, but is unknown to any other of our 

 British species. A remarkable variety termed Borreri 

 was discovered by Mr. Borrer, in Devonshire, and seems 

 not uncommon. It has a narrow lanceolate frond of 

 a golden yeUow colour, and bright yellow scales on the 

 rachis. 



5. L. Fmnisecii (Triangular Prickly-toothed, or Re- 

 curved Fern). — Frond gvucvgA., triangular, twice pinnate; 

 pinnules pinnate, or deeply pinnatifid; indmium jagged 

 at the edge. This is a beautiful and weH-marked fern, 

 having its frond very minutely divided. Its peculiarity 

 consists in having the margins of its segments all curled 



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