WOODWARDIA. 



405 



W. r. Brownii— Brown'-i-i (Brown's). Synonymous with W. r. cristata. 



W. r. Burgesiana — Bur-ges-i-a'-na (Burges's), Stansfield. 



This variety, introduced from the Azores, is of quite distinct appearance. 

 Its very handsome, light, elegant fronds, which sometimes attain 2£ft. in 

 length, have their leaflets and leafits uniformly depauperated ; they are ot 

 a somewhat harsh, leathery texture and beautifully saw-toothed throughout. 

 It is as proliferous as the species from which it is issue, and is readily 

 propagated by the pegging-down of the bulbils borne at the extremity of the 

 fronds. 



W. r. cristata — cris-ta'-ta (crested), Moore. 



In this variety, which was originally discovered in the Island of St. Michael 

 by Mr. George Brown, the leaflets and leafits of the fronds, which are much 

 shorter than those of the typical plant, are extensively subdivided; the latter 

 are deeply cleft at their summit and form along the sides of the fronds a row 

 of tufted branches or crests starting from the leaflets almost at right angles. 

 The terminal crests, larger than the lateral ones, are frequently 4in. in width 

 and are composed of innumerable small, excurrent points. This variety is 

 readily increased by the viviparous buds which are produced at the ends of 

 the fronds, as in the typical plant, and it is also worthy of notice that the 

 characters peculiar to cristata are quite apparent in young plants only a few 

 inches high. W. r. Brownii is another name for this variety. 



W. (Anchistea) Yirginica— Anch-is'-te-a ; vir-gin'-ic-a (Virginian), Smith. 



A very pleasing, hardy Fern, of deciduous nature and essentially of North 

 American origin. Eaton says that it is "a rather rare Fern, though plentiful 

 in certain localities ; it grows in swamps often where the depth of water 

 renders the plant almost inaccessible." The same authority gives its range of 

 habitat as from Canada and New England to Florida, westward to Louisiana. 

 According to Lowe, it was cultivated in the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 1834, 

 but Nicholson gives 1774 as the date of its introduction into Britain. Its 

 oblong- spear- shaped fronds, 1ft. to ljft. long, 6in. to 9in. broad, and borne 

 on strong, erect stalks 1ft. to lffi long, are produced from a rootstock nearly 

 as thick as a man's little finger : this creeps just beneath the surface of the 

 firm mud at the bottom of the shallow ponds in which it prefers to grow. 



