104 



forms, but in raising even finer ones under a state of 

 cultivation. Within a week of his first find he picked up 

 B. 5. polydactyla near Lynton, Devon, and was now 

 smitten with the fever for collecting, a most enticing and 

 alluring pursuit which he has since cultivated at intervals 

 in various parts of Britain and Ireland. The very narrow 

 and neat fronds of B. S. continuum, Druery are made up of 

 semi-circular, very short and beautifully serrate pinnae. 

 B. S. lineare Barnes differs in having entire or almost entire 

 strap-like fronds. Quite a handsome form is B. S. 

 plumosum Airey, which, in its best and highest develop- 

 ment, is bipinnate, and 2 feet long, yet narrow and grace- 

 ful. The basal third only of the fronds of B. S. contvactum 

 is narrow and contracted. The broad pinnae of B. S, 

 imbricatum overlap one another like the tiles of a roof. 

 Another type is B. S. ramo-cristatum, with branching and 

 crested fronds. B. S. ramo-cristatum Sinclair has the 

 pinnae of the fertile fronds mostly confined to the apex. 

 Of the Lady Ferns, Lastreas and Polystichums, we must 

 say something later on as the limits of space are against 

 us on this occasion ; while the varieties, which include 

 some of the finest forms in existence, are too rare, beautiful 

 and interesting to be overlooked. — Gardening World. 



LASTREA DILATATA AND ITS ALLIES. 



This fern, which is part of the Poly podium cvistatum of 

 Linnaeus, the Polypodium dilatatum of Hoffmann, the P. 

 muUiflorum of Roth, and the Dvyopteris aristata of the most 

 modern school of botanists, is one of the commonest ferns 

 of our non-calcareous districts, and may be thought to be 

 thoroughly well known. Nevertheless, it is by no means 

 easy to define its exact limits as a species, and there is still 



