io; 



character, for while those of spiuulosa are broadly orate 

 and of a uniform light brown colour, those of dilatata are 

 lanceolate-ovate, more acutely pointed, and have each a 

 dark chocolate coloured stripe passing from base to apex. 

 There is also, in well developed scales, a narrow margin 

 of extremely thin tissue which appears paler than the 

 general colour, so that the scale contains really three 

 shades of brown in distinct bands. The central dark stripe 

 is very characteristic of dilatata and its geographical forms 

 or subspecies collina and alpiua, and in my experience can 

 always be relied upon to distinguish them from both 

 spiuulosa and cemula. Newman, however, describes another 

 species, L. glandulosa, which resembles dilatata generally, 

 but has scales like those of spinulosa. I have myself 

 never seen a plant conforming to Newman's descripton. I 

 have had fronds sent to me as L. glandulosa (Newman), 

 but they appeared to be merely glandular forms or states 

 of dilatata, and always had the dark-striped scales 

 characteristic of that species. Maculata (Deakin) is 

 another form described as having concolorous scales, the 

 name maculata being taken apparently from patches of 

 darker colour on the fronds and not referring to the scales 

 at all. These patches of darker or brownish green are, 

 however, very common on dilatata when frosted or weather- 

 beaten, and are not reproduced on fresh fronds grown 

 under glass or in a thoroughly sheltered position. Another 

 character upon which great stress has been laid in botan- 

 ical text books is the indusium or involucre, which is said to 

 be fringed with stalked glands in dilatata, and with stalkless 

 glands in cemula, while it is smooth and entire in spinulosa. 

 Newman gives very exact drawings of the indusia of the 

 three species, looking at which one would imagine they 

 would be easily distinguished by the indusium alone. Of 

 course it is only during a certain stage of development 

 that this appearance can be discovered, viz. when the 



