VARIEGATED AND CRESTED FERNS. 



43 



Adiantum forruosuru variegatum. 



ruacrophyllurn striatum, f 

 Anemia Pliyllitidis tessellata. 

 Aspidium aculeatum angulare variegatum .* 

 Asplenium Adiantum-nigram variegatum.* 



fontanum variegatum.* 



macrocarpum (Goringiauum) pictum. 

 G-ymnogramme japonica variegata. 



Muelleri. 

 Neplirodium albo-punctatum. 



Filix-mas variegatum. 



Otaria (aristatum) variegatum. 

 Polypodium vulgare variegatum.* 



Pteris aquiliua variegata.* 



biaurita nemoralis variegata. 

 cretica albo-lineata. 

 c. Mayi. 



ensiformis variegata. 



palmata nobilis.t 



quadriaurita argyrsea. 



q. tricolor. t 

 Scolopendrium vulgare variegatum.* 

 Selagiuella involveus (japouica) varie- 

 g'ata. 



Kraussiana (denticulata) variegata. 

 Martensii variegata. 



Crested Ferns. 



It has been clearly demonstrated that variegation is a form of variation 

 possessed almost exclusively by Ferns of exotic origin. Cristation, on the 

 contrary, is a form of variation to which European Ferns appear much more 

 predisposed than exotic kinds, for there is scarcely a British species which 

 has not produced crested forms, from the dwarf Asplenium Trichomcmes to 

 the gigantic-growing Pteris aquilina, or common Bracken. 



In exotic, as in native, species of Ferns, cristation consists in the sub- 

 division — in some instances many times repeated — of the extremities of the 

 fronds, by which process a sort of tassel is naturally formed. At other times 

 the cristation is only shown by the bifurcation of the tips of the fronds ; 

 but it is interesting to note that, whatever form this character assumes, it 

 generally extends to the pinnaB, which are usually affected in the same 

 manner, though in a lesser degree, as the extremity of the frond itself. 

 Another point which is worth noticing, is that the stalk of the frond is 

 seldom, if ever, affected by simple cristation. The abnormal character of the 

 stalks, which occasionally become fasciated or flattened, and branched out, is 

 only shown when cristation, by infinite division of all parts, is developed to 

 such an extent as to produce, instead of a flat, normal frond, either a ball- 

 like mass of green vegetation, or an intricate and symmetrically-divided sort 

 of lattice -work. 



Cristation — " monstrosity," as it has sometimes been called — is, when 

 shared by exotic kinds, in the majority of cases constant, as plants partaking 



