FERNS AND MOSSES. 93 
and looks down on the pretty little town of Pains-wick, 
beautifully situated on the declivity of a hill, the summit 
of which is crowned with an old Roman Encampment thrown 
up by Ostorius. The road passes a series of valleys, renowned 
in history as the last strongholds of the ruthless Danes in 
the time of Alfred ; and on the verge of the most remote 
and solitary, stands Custom Scrubs, with its rude cottages, 
and profusion of dark junipers. There grows the Lady-fern, 
a name expressive of its graceful and fragile form. Ray 
applied the term to our common Brakes, but Linnaeus, with 
that delicate perception of whatever was most appropriate, 
assigned to it the one of which we speak. 
Two distinct types of form pertain to the Lady-fern, and 
may be thus described : 
1. Flattened type. "The fronds are broad, heavy, and 
drooping, and often of considerable size, perhaps even from 
three to five feet in length ; the pinnulaa are perfectly flat, 
with all-their cuttings clearly displayed ; and the masses of 
thecaa seldom, if ever, become perfectly confluent. Plants 
of this type vary infinitely in the cutting of the pinnulse ; 
also in the colour of the rachis, which is green, or inclining 
to red, purple, or even brown." 
2. Convex type. " The fronds are more narrow, rigid, 
erect, light, and feathery, of a smaller size, but still occasion- 
ally reaching from two feet to thirty inches in height ; the 
pinnulae are convex, the margins uniformly bent downwards; 
the masses of theca? crowded and confluent ; the rachis some- 
what pellucid, and very brittle. This type is generally pale 
green, sometimes nearly white, occasionally of a pinkish 
tinge, and even nearly as red as coral." 
Observe, also, that in these two very marked varieties, 
the one with broader segments of dark green hue, and having 
a rachis of pale purple, is less common than the variety of 
which the segments are of a more delicate texture, and the 
frond itself of a pale green. The latter varies considerably 
