60 FERNS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



most of the frondS' retain their greenness even in winter. 

 The stalk, which is about one-fourth of the length of the 

 frond, is covered with a thick mass of scales of a rust- 

 red colour. The young unfolded plants are, in spring, 

 quite clothed with them, and in the older plants they 

 extend more or less throughout the rachis. Large cir- 

 cular clumps of this fern attract the eye by their beauty 

 of form and attitude, as well as by their large size ; for 

 they are occasionally four or five feet in height, though 

 more frequently about two. They have not the rigid 

 aspect of the last species, but are softer and bending. 

 The form of the frond is lanceolate and twice pinnate, 

 the pinnae being very numerous, long, and tapering 

 in form, distinct, and often distant from each other. 

 The pinnules are flat, somewhat crescent-shaped, some- 

 times blunt and sometimes acutely pointed, some of 

 the lower pinnules having deep lobes so as to be pinna- 

 tifid. They are distinctly stalked, and serrated at the 

 margins, a Httle spine surmounting each serrature. The 

 under surface of the frond is of a delicate sea-green 

 colour, with small, brown, chaffy scales about it. The 

 upper surface is of a deeper hue, but not of a full green 

 tint. The pinnules taper to a broad angled base, and 

 are attached to the rachis of the pinilse by a short and 

 slender stalk. A very elegant variety, called P. subtri- 

 pinndtum, has its pinnules at the base very deeply lobed; 

 and a form- termed P. angmtdtum has all its pinnules 

 narrow and acute. 



