I 20 
European Ferns. 
distinct; there are five to seven pairs on a pinna.”* With this may be combined two other 
varieties, trifid urn and ovation (or dentation ), also described by Mr. Newman; the first of these 
is about as large again as niolle ; the pinnules are not quite united by a wing of the midrib; 
they are also more deeply cut, and generally distinctly trifid at the apex ; while the clusters 
of sori are smaller and even more remote than in molle. The variety ovation is intermediate 
between molle and trifidum , resembling the former in size and habit, but the latter in the 
structure of the lobes. It is a stouter and more rigid plant than i nolle, and of a darker hue ; 
our cuts will give perhaps a better idea of the differences between these closely allied forms 
Wm \ a 
' 
^ -r 
VARIETIES OF ATHYRIUM FTLIX-FUiMINA. 
2. TRIFIDUM. 
3 . OVATUM. 
than a verbal description could convey. The variety ovation seems to be identical with Mr. 
Moore’s latifoliion ; Sir. W. J. Hooker refers to this as the most distinct looking of the forms 
“ with the pinnules oval and broad subpetiolated and rather serrated than pinnatifid, the rachises 
of the pinnae winged. ”f Mr. Moore describes and figures a variety gracile, with lax, slender 
fronds, the pinnae being distant and drawn out into a long point at the apex, and the 
pinnules also distant ; and a variety discctum, the fronds of which, as the name would 
suggest, are very much cut. The variety incision is one of the handsomest of the forms ; 
Mr. Newman writes concerning it: “The fronds of this plant often attain a length of four 
and sometimes five feet, and a breadth of eighteen inches; its rhizoma grows to an immense 
size, and when perfectly undisturbed for many years, in a favourable situation, rises above the 
surface of the ground, and throws up a most striking and beautiful head of fronds, often 
* Newman’s “ History of British Ferns” (1844), p. 242. 
f “ Species Filicum,” vol. iii., p. 219. 
