498 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



loam, peat, and sand, in about equal proportions. When sheltered, it retains 

 its fronds through the winter. It may be freely increased by means of its 

 spores, which ripen about September and germinate very freely. 



The varieties of N. dilatatum found growing spontaneously or produced 

 by cultivation are very numerous. Moore, in his "Nature-printed Ferns," 

 describes eighteen of them as most distinct, and in a list published in 1865, 

 Mr. P. Neill Fraser, of Canonmills Lodge, Edinburgh, enumerates no less 

 than sixty-five varieties. E. J. Lowe, in his excellent work, "Our Native 

 Ferns," while describing sixty varieties, illustrates no less than forty-three of 

 them. The following are the most distinct of those at present known, 

 many of those included in the above-named lists having disappeared from 

 cultivation : 



N. d. angUStipinnulum— an-gus-tip-in'-nul-um (having narrow leafits), 

 Moore, 



A singular form, originally found in Lancashire. Its curious fronds, 

 about 1ft. long and bipinnate (twice divided to the midrib), are to a certain 

 extent depauperated (impoverished), their pinnules (leafits) being rather distant 

 and narrow, about lin. long, and unequally toothed on their margins, while 

 near the extremity of the fronds they are shortened into irregular, roundish 

 lobes. — Lowe, Our Native Ferns, i., fig. 259. 



N. d. Chanteriae— Chan-te'-ri-a3 (Mrs. Chanter's), Moore. 



A beautiful and very distinct variety, originally found in tolerable 

 abundance at Hartland, in North Devon. Its handsome fronds, 2ft. long, are 

 oblong-spear-shaped, abruptly narrowing at the base, and narrowing into a long 

 tail-like process at their summit. The leaflets, 3 Jin. long, IJin. broad, and 

 twisted upwards, have their basal pinnules (leafits) oblong and very blunt at 

 the extremity. The small and numerous sori (spore masses) are disposed in 

 a single line on either side near the midrib of the small pinnules and on the 

 lobes of the larger ones. — Loice, Our Native Ferns, i., fig. 245. 



N. d. COllinum— col-li'-num (hill-loving), Newman. 



This variety, usually known as "Finder's Hill Prickly-toothed Buckler 

 Fern," has its leaflets situated distant from one another and particularly 

 spreading. — Lowe, Ferns British and Exotic, vi., p. 79, 



