Asplenium. 
95 
ENLARGED PINNULE, 
SHOWING 
FRUCTIFICATION. 
as the sori enlarge. When mature these are brown, and often run together into one mass, 
when the whole back of the frond is more or less covered with them. This is one of the 
ferns which has been recorded as having, by a strange freak, produced its fructification upon 
the upper side of the pinnae. Mr. Moore* * * § speaks of “a specimen gathered in Italy by [the 
late] E. W. Cooke, R.A., in which, besides the copious fructification of the under surface, 
one of the pinnae bore a solitary but complete sorus on its upper surface.” The most striking 
example of the production of fructification in the 
upper surface of the fronds of ferns is offered by 
a Ceylon Polypody (Polypodium anomalum ), in 
which the sori are always on the upper surface. + 
Several varieties of A. Trichomanes are enume- 
rated and described by Mr. Moore to two or 
three of the more important of these we will now 
briefly refer. One of the most striking is a branched 
variety known as raniosum , in which it is not merely a forking of 
the frond at the apex which is to be noticed, but a distinct branch- 
ing of the rachis at irregular intervals. This is constant under 
cultivation, and deserves a place on the rockery. A still prettier 
form, however, is incisum, which attracted the attention of the earlier 
botanists. It is figured in Plukenet’s “ Phytographia ” § (1691), and 
was found in Jersey by Sherard ; it is also included in Smith’s 
“ English Flora.” Our figure shows the elegant appearance which 
the fronds present ; the pinnae are somewhat triangular in outline, 
and are deeply cut into narrow, acute, somewhat irregular segments. 
This has been found wild in England in numerous localities ; it is 
difficult to cultivate, and does not produce spores : Milde describes 
the plant under the varietal name lobato-crenatum, and distinguishes 
four forms of it. Mr. Moore describes a crested variety (cristatum), 
similar to the corresponding variety of Blech- 
num Spicant, already referred to, having the 
apices of the fronds developed into a tuft or 
tassel : this produces spores plentifully, and is 
readily increased by this means, and it is constant in cultivation. The 
variety multifidum also corresponds to the similarly-named form of the 
Hard Fern. Mr. Moore names ten varieties in all ; Milde arranges the 
forms somewhat differently. Besides the one already mentioned, he has 
a variety auriculatum , the segments of which are auricled or lobed at 
the base ; a variety umbrosum , which is described as a flaccid, slender 
plant, with coarsely crenate, oval pinnae, and few sori ; a variety micro- 
phyllum, a very small plant, with decumbent fronds, forming a rosette, 
found in Italy, the Tyrol, and on Mount Libanus ; and two large 
varieties, named majus and rotundatum respectively — the first a tall, robust form, found in 
A. TRICHOMANES, Var. INCISUM. 
LARGE FORM OF 
ASPLENIUM TRICHOMANES. 
* “Nature-printed British Ferns” (8vo. edition), vol. ii., p. 135. 
t See Hooker’s “Journal of Botany and Kew Gardens Miscellany,” viii. 360, tab. xi. (1856.) 
t “Nature-printed British Ferns” (8vo. edition), vol. iii., pp. 109-112. 
§ Tab. lxxiii., fig. 6. 
