o o 
European Ferns. 
disappear. The sporangia are at first pale, but become brownish-black and shining: the spores 
are round or oblong, and covered with small prickly protuberances. 
. Such, at least, is the usual form of this 
Rl/Sbfat i/jr \ plant, but any one who has examined many 
examples of it in a living state must be 
aware of its great variability. 
Hence has arisen the distinguish- 
ing of a great many varieties, 
several of which are described 
as species, and to this we owe 
the very formidable list of sy- 
nonyms which we find in the 
“Nature-Printed British Ferns,” 
and elsewhere. In this magnifi- 
cent work, Mr. Moore groups the 
numerous named varieties in two divisions, excluding the typical form, and also the very distinct 
variety Dickicana, to which we shall refer later on. In the first group, Angustatce, are placed 
the narrower pinnuled, often large and inciso-dentate forms, and of these he takes as the 
CYSTOPIERIS KRAGILIS. 
{a) Var. angustata. (b) Var. antiiriscifolia. 
