500 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



on stalks about 1ft. long and densely scal}^ are about 1ft. long and 9in. 

 broad in the middle. Their leaflets are distant, and the pinnules (leafits), 

 sometimes opposite, sometimes alternate, are long, narrow, and more or 

 less rounded at the extremity, where they are sometimes forked. — Lowe, 

 Our Native Ferns, i., fig. 263. 



N. d. grandiceps— gran'-dic-eps (large-headed), Moore. 



A remarkable variety, originally found at Windermere, and probably 

 the most beautifully-crested known form of N. dilatatum. Its handsome 



fronds, of normal size, show a great development 

 of the crests, which are disposed with constant 

 regularity and symmetry at the end of each leaflet, 

 besides a very large one at the extremity of the 

 frond itself (Fig. 121). 



N. 



(Howard's), 



d. Howardii — How-ar'-dl-i 



Monhman. 



This unique variety is the most remarkable 

 form of iV. dilatatum that has yet been discovered. 

 The name Howardii, according to Lowe, was given 

 in comphment to the Earl of Carlisle, and in 

 acknowledgment of the interest his Lordship has 

 taken in the Ferns of the Castle Howard district. 

 It was found accidentally by one of Lord Carlisle's 

 labourers, growing luxuriantly in the Raywood, 

 closely contiguous to Castle Howard. Like the 

 original species, this variety is of robust habit, but the outlines of the 

 fronds present a peculiar contracted appearance towards their extremity, 

 where the leaflets, becoming curiously dwarfed and transformed, are composed 

 of pinnules (leafits) having three, four, or five short divisions which are 

 finely and continuously toothed on the margins. On account of this arrange- 

 ment, the leaflets, with their transformed forked pinnules, strongly resemble 

 the small fronds of the better-known Asplenium {Athyrium) Filix-foemina 

 Fieldice and Aspidium {Polystichum) angidare Ehvorthii. — Loioe, Our Native 

 Ferns, i., figs. 241, 242, 243. 



Fi^. 121. Frond of Nephrodium 

 dilatatum grandiceps 

 (mucli reduced). 



