Lastrea. 
161 
occurs in comparatively few localities. It is a very variable plant, but space will not permit 
us to do more than glance at one or two of the principal forms. 
The variety dumetorum, of 
which a figure is appended, is 
a small plant with oblong-ovate, 
bipinnate fronds, their under- 
side as well as the stipites 
being covered with glands. One 
remarkable feature in this form is 
the profusion with which the fruc- 
tification is pi'oduced upon quite 
young plants ; the fronds are also 
often marked with dark, irregular 
blotches upon both the upper and 
under surface, and to this the name 
metadata (under which Deakin de- 
scribed the plant) refers. Another 
distinct form is the variety CIuvi- 
tcrice, which has only been found 
in one or two localities in Devon- 
shire ; it is distinguished by the 
narrow, slender apex of the fronds, 
the pinnae being distant and the 
pinnules blunt. In the variety al- 
pina — which occurs in elevated situ- 
ations in Scotland and in the north 
of England — the fronds are of a 
delicate, membranous structure, quite 
exceptional in the forms of the 
species ; the variety nana is, as its 
name implies, a dwarf plant, the 
whole length of the fronds, their 
stipites included, not exceeding a 
foot, and occasionally being only 
two inches. 
Sir William Hooker* brings 
together as forms' of one species, 
not only L. dilatata and L. spinu- 
losa, but also L. cemula, which we 
have next to consider. He says, 
“ Perhaps no group of ferns has oc- 
casioned more difference of opinion 
than the supposed species I have 
here brought under the Aspidium spinulosum.” The confusion that exists with regard to these 
forms is indeed almost endless ; and they are so closely connected, and at the same time 
* “Species Filicum,” vol. iv., p. 129. 
FROND OF LASTREA FCEN1SECII. 
26 
