TRANSFORMATIONS. 89 
of the frond. The pinnae also are acquiring a 
toothed appearance, in some cases being cut ahiiost 
up to the rachis, till it approaches very near to A. 
fontanum, although the difference is still too 
marked for any one to mistake the one for the 
other. This plant of viride is a near neighbour of 
a fringed and forked Scolopendrium, and not far 
from A. Filix-mas cristata. I believe all Scolo- 
pendriums are improved by cultivation and by 
good society ; but this acquired beauty never has 
for me the same charm as natural grace. It is 
like the difference between a learned and a clever 
man — between water pumped up from a cistern, 
the length and breadth of which you can measure, 
and the never-ceasing flow of a rivulet on which 
the sunbeams sparkle and die. Still we do not 
grumble at a cistern when we do not possess a 
spring, and there is much pleasure in watching all 
the changes of the Scolopendrium. They have 
one other great point of recommendation— you 
viay find something new in them, some strange 
deformity which no one has noticed before ; 
