BEAUTIFUL FERNS. 
28 
This plant is usually considered the type of the species ; 
it is very common in Europe, less so in America.* It is well 
represented on Plate xxi of Moore’s Nature Printed British 
Ferns, and on Plate 18 of Hooker’s British Ferns. Being 
obliged to give it some distinetive name as a variety, I have 
selected what seems to be the oldest, that used by Koch, 
who, however, placed the species in Polystichum. 
Var. intermedium has fronds a little broader in outline 
than those of var. vulgare, and often larger ; measuring not 
unfrequently twenty-two inches long and nine inches broad 
The color is dark-green. The pinnae diverge from the rachis 
at an angle of from sixty to ninety degrees, being usually 
more spreading than in the type of the species. The lowest 
ones are sometimes nearly three inches distant from the next : 
they are triangular-ovate in outline, and have the pinnules of 
the lower side much longer than those on the upper side. 
The first or basal pinnule is generally a little shorter than 
the second^ one, a point noticed by Milde, but apparently 
hitherto overlooked by American authors. Successive pinnae 
are a little narrower and longer, the longest ones being com- 
monly those just below the middle of the frond. The 
secondary rachises are very narrowly winged. The pinnae are 
usually fairly bipinnatifid, being one degree more compound 
I Milde has as sub-varieties, cxaltatuin, with dark-gi-een glabrous fronds, clevatum^ 
with narrower yellowish-green and somewhat glandular fronds, and Amurense, with 
broadly ovate fronds chafly beneath with little bullate scales. He says that towards the 
north of Europe the true spinulosum becomes scarce and passes gradually into var. 
dilaiatum. 
