I IS 
European Ferns. 
were ferns as fashionable in other countries as they are in our own, when we consider that 
Athyrium Filix-fcemina is a plant of a very wide geographical range, extending through 
both hemispheres, although absent from a good part of the old world. The extreme 
tendency of the plant to become what botanists term “ monstrous ” is one of its most 
striking peculiarities, and has rendered it very popular as a cultivated species. We shall 
refer farther on to some of the more remarkable of these “monstrous” forms. 
If asked to say offhand how the Lady Fern might be most readily distinguished, it would 
probably not be misleading if we were to describe it as resembling a Male Fern, but with 
very finely divided pinnae and a more delicate texture. No doubt it was this more delicate 
style of growth which caused Linnaeus to apply the name Filix-fcemina to the species, in 
contrast to the more robust Filix-mas ; but the original Filix-fcemina was not this plant, 
but the Bracken ( Pteris aquilina). If we open any of the old herbals — Parkinson’s, for 
example — we shall find the chapter headed “ Filix foemina, the female Feme ” devoted 
mainly to the Bracken. Parkinson stated that it is this which “ is generally by most authors 
called Filix foemina ,” and he adds, “ it is called in Italian Felce foemina , and French, Fougere 
femelle'.' It is well to bear this in mind when referring to the earlier botanical authors, as the 
change of name is somewhat misleading.. 
The fronds of the Lady Fern spring from a large erect or ascending caudex, which often 
rises some inches above the ground ; Mr. Newman says : “In one instance I have seen it more 
than a foot in height, thus exhibiting a considerable resemblance in habit to the tree ferns:” 
it is scaly at the top, and gives off many black fibrous, wiry roots. The fronds are of annual 
duration, appearing in May; they are at first circinate in vernation, but as they develope the 
top becomes free, and hangs down in a crosier-like fashion. The stipes is about a third or a 
quarter of the length of the whole frond ; it is pale-green or dark-brown, or sometimes of a 
bright reddish-brown hue, when it forms a charming contrast with the delicate pale-green of 
the pinnae ; it is much swollen towards the base, and in its lower portion covered with dark 
narrow scales, which are more sparingly scattered on the upper portion. The fronds vary very 
much in shape and size, as well as in habit ; in form they are generally lanceolate and 
regularly pinnate, varying a good deal in breadth ; they are from one or two feet, or even 
more — we lately met with a record of a frond forty inches long— -in height, and from six 
inches to a foot broad. The pinnae are either alternate or opposite, sometimes very close 
together, especially in the upper portion ot the frond, more distant in the lower portion. 
The pinnules are numerous, very close together, pinnatifid with toothed lobes, sometimes 
acute, the terminal pinnule being drawn out into a point, at other times obtuse. The latent 
veins are forked, the anterior branch of each bearing on its side a narrow cluster of sori, 
which are somewhat crescent-shaped or horseshoe-shaped, and it is upon this, as has been 
already said, that the claims of the genus mainly rest. This character being one of so 
much importance, we may be excused for quoting somewhat at length Mr. Moore’s remarks 
upon it. lie says: “The fructification of Athyrium will be found to consist of sori varying 
in form, and hence all parts of the frond should be thoroughly examined. Towards the 
extremities, that is to say near the apices of the pinnules or segments, the sori will generally 
be found to consist of short lines, in which the characteristic curve is very little or not at all 
apparent. Such sori are undoubtedly asplenioid, and indicate the actual relationship of the 
genus. Next to these occur others which Professor Mettenius calls hamate, and which in 
their less developed condition answer to the semi-lunate sori which have been generally 
ascribed to Athyrium. These curved or hamate sori are formed by the receptacle which 
