SCOLOPENDRIUM. 



325 



repeatedly forked at their summit, measure from lft. to 2ft. in length and over 

 lin. in breadth, and are very scaly, especially near the midrib. — Lowe, Our 

 Native Ferns, ii., fig. 605. 



S. Y. crispum— cris'-pum (frilled), Gray. 



Though this is one of the oldest known varieties, it is also one of the 

 most beautiful in cultivation ; it is an easily-grown plant, of excellent habit, 

 with elegant, frilled fronds of normal size. It is singular that this permanently 

 barren form should have been found in a wild state in so many places, where 

 it must have sprung up spontaneously, as there are no records of spores having 

 ever been found on either cultivated or wild plants of it ; yet it has been 

 gathered in Guernsey, at Barnstaple, at By land Abbey, and at Fumess Abbey. 

 A well-grown plant of S. v. crispum makes a splendid object for the outdoor 

 or indoor Fernery ; its luxuriant spreading fronds, Bin. broad, deeply and 

 regularly wavy, and furnished at their base with unusually large lobes, when 

 viewed edgewise, exactly resemble a frill. — Lowe, Our Native Ferns, ii., 

 p. 359. Druery, Choice British Ferns, p. 137. 



Mr. Druery judiciously remarks : " The crispum. section represents the 

 plumose form of this species, the leafy portion being very much developed, so 

 that a more or less deep frill is formed on each side of the main stalk, and 

 it is worthy of notice also that the most highly developed forms are perfectly 

 barren. The wild finds of this description have been many, and though 

 there are about a dozen forms sufficiently distinct to be easily discriminated 

 by the eye, it would be impossible to convey the difference clearly in writing." 

 The most distinct are : amplum, cristatum, grandidens, and multifidum, of 

 Lowe; majus, of Jackson; bulbiferum, fertile, fimbriatum, and Stansjieldii, 

 of Stansfield. 



S. Y. crista-galli— cris'-ta-gal'-li (cock's comb), Wollaston. 



This beautiful form, though somewhat allied to the better-known S. v. 

 multifidum, is yet very distinct. Its handsome fronds, 12in. to 14in. long, 

 ljin. to 2jin. broad, heart-shaped at the base, and more or less wavy in the 

 lower portion, have their margins notched and terminate in a compactly crispy 

 tuft of inward-folding, slightly-twisting leaflets. It was originally found at 

 G-lanville's Wootton, in Dorsetshire, but was subsequently gathered at Nettle- 

 combe, at Malham, and on Whitbarrow. — Lowe, Our Native Ferns, ii., p. 314. 



