A 7IIYRIUM. 
I 2 I 
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thirty or forty in number.”* The colour of the fronds is rather dull, as compared with 
that of molle ; the pinnae are very broad ; the pinnules are distinct, sometimes pinnate, with 
flat diverging lobes. There are two forms of the Lady Fern, 
however, which demand rather more special attention than the 
foregoing. The first of these, variety rhceticum , is a very 
distinct plant, readily separated from the foregoing by the 
narrow lanceolate fronds and convex pinnules, in allusion to 
which Newman named it variety convexum. It is as well 
here to mention that there are two plants known by the name 
of rhtzticum — one, that now under consideration ; the other, a 
fern which we shall describe at length when we come to 
consider the genus Polypodiurn, where we shall refer to it 
under the name of Polypodium alpestrc. The stipes of this form 
is often, though not invariably, of a bright reddish hue. It is 
of tufted habit, with upright, rigid-looking fronds, from two to 
four feet high, growing in exposed boggy places, and widely 
spread over the three kingdoms. “The pinnae are distant, the 
lower ones most so, and these are also usually deflexed, though 
the majority have an upward or ascending tendency. The 
secondary rachides are slender, and without any herbareous 
wing, the pinnules being set as distinct from each other, and very 
commonly at a right angle with them ; these pinnules are narrow, 
linear-lanceolate, becoming apparently linear, with the enlarged 
or prolonged interior basal lobe quite evident. This narrowed 
appearance results from the incurving of the points of the 
lobes into which the margin is divided, whence the pinnules 
become convex.” f The sori are much crowded, and soon become 
confluent ; the whole plant (except the rachis) is usually of a pale 
yellow-green, and is conspicuous by its hue on the bogs where it 
especially delights to grow. 
The variety phimosum is one of the most beautiful forms 
of the Lady Fern, and is not only the most elegant variety 
which has been discovered in England, but is also noteworthy 
on account of its peculiar fructification. Three plants of it 
were found in a wild state near Skipworth in Yorkshire, in 
1857, and were placed in the hands of the Messrs. Stansfield of 
Todmorden, through whom it has come into cultivation. The 
fronds are two feet or more in height, and about ten inches in 
breadth ; they are extremely delicate in texture, and of very 
beautiful bright green hue ; the pinnules, which overlap each 
other, are divided to the rachis into distinct very narrow athyrium filix-fcemina, 
Var. iNcrsuM. 
pinnules, and these again are divided into linear-toothed seg- 
ments ; this repeated division gives the whole frond a peculiarly light and feathery appearance, 
and renders the name phimosum extremely appropriate. The sori are very rarely produced, and 
# “ History of British Ferns,” p. 243. 
t Moore’s “Nature-printed British Ferns” (8vo edition), p. 35. 
21 
