Blechnum. 
7 [ 
simply bifid at the apex, as shown in the accompanying figure ; the extremes of this method 
of division are seen in the two forms miiltifidum and ramosum , of which we give cuts. In 
the first of these, the barren fronds (the fertile ones are 
not known) are often branched once or twice near the base, 
or many times forked towards the apex, thus forming a flat 
spreading tuft. “ The segments resulting from these apical 
furcations,” writes Mr. Moore, who has paid much attention 
to the variations of British Ferns, and to whom we acknow- 
ledge our indebtedness, “ are quite irregular in form and size, 
but they spread out, and are most of them extended into a 
lengthened acute point, of which the margins are irregularly 
notched, producing a somewhat ragged appearance : the 
fronds are about six to eight inches long, tapered below.” 
The variety ramosum, which has an exact counterpart in 
a variety of the common Hart’s-tongue ( Scolopendrium 
vulgare ) bearing the same name, is a very pretty plant. 
The fronds in this are repeatedly divided in a forked manner into numerous branches, each of 
which terminates in a dense crested tuft. This variety, which is well worthy of cultivation, has 
been met with in the Irish counties of Wicklow and Mayo, and also in Westmoreland. 
The Hard Fern is a plant of wide though not general distribution, but it is mainly 
confined to Europe. Its extra-European localities are — in the Old World, Madeira, the Azores, 
and the Cape Verde Islands ; it is also said to occur at the Cape of Good Hope, and in 
North Africa : while in the New World it is reported from Sitka, Nootka Sound, Oregon, 
and Chili. It is spread almost all through the mountainous and sub-alpine districts of Europe, 
FORKED VARIETY OF HARD FERN. 
BLECHNUM SPICANT, Var. MULTIFIDUM. 
BLECHNUM SPICANT, Var. RAMOSUM. 
as well as in the lower regions, extending from Lapland to Sicily, from Spain and Portugal 
to Crete and the Caucasus. With ourselves, it is recorded for nearly all the English and Scottish 
counties, and doubtless occurs in the whole of them, as those from which it is not as yet 
