552 
CITLTURE OF HARDY FERNS. 
margins being irregularly lacerated. It was 
found in 1846 on Ben Muich Dhui in Aber- 
deenshire, at 2,700 feet elevation, and has 
maintained the same appearance under cul- 
tivation. 
" The Lady Fern grows with a tufted 
caudex, which in old plants of the stronger 
growing variety, incisum, becomes considerably 
elongated and trunk-like ; from this the black 
wiry fibrous roots are produced. The fronds 
are in all cases of delicate texture, and have 
more or less of a light feathery appearance ; 
they grow up about May, reaching maturity 
towards the end of the summer, and dying 
down in the autumn if not destroyed by early 
frost ; their vernation at first is circinate, but 
by degrees the apex becomes liberated, and 
hangs down, assuming the appearance of a 
shepherd's crook, as in Lastrea Filix-mas. 
The general outline of the frond is lanceolate, 
broadest in the variety incisum, and narrowest 
in convexum : incisum often grows four or 
five feet high ; trifidum, convexum, and mul- 
tifidum from two to three feet ; molle from a 
foot to eighteen inches ; and crispum usually 
about six inches high. The fronds grow up 
in a large tuft from the crown, the older 
plants of the larger varieties sometimes 
throwing up from twenty to thirty fronds, 
such examples being noble as well as lovely ; 
incisum has the fronds somewhat drooping ; 
the others, with the exception of crispum, are 
more erect in habit; crispum is of a spreading 
A tliyrimn Filix-femina cri^-pum. 
tufted habit of growth. The stipes is sur- 
rounded with numerous elongated scales 
around the base, where it is much swollen, a 
few smaller scales occurring on the upper part; 
on the low€r part, from a fourth to a third of 
the height of the plant, the stipes are bare of 
pinnae; in the upper part the pinnse are closer 
or more distant, varying much according to 
the situation where the plant has been grow- 
ing. The pinnae are lanceolate, more or less 
attenuated ; they are distinctly pinnate in 
incisum and convexum, the pinnules becom- 
ing somewhat decurrent in trifidum, and 
more decidedly so in molle. The pinnules 
have more or less of the lanceolate form; those 
of incisum are flat, deeply pinnatifid, with 
diverging sharply-toothed lobes; of convexum 
linear, convolute, the margins being notched 
rather than toothed, and folding over the 
sori ; of trifidum flat, deeply cut, the apices of 
the lobes generally distinctly trifid, and the 
first anterior lobe larger than the rest; of 
molle flat with toothed margins. The vena- 
tion is mostly very distinct, from the delicate 
texture of the frond ; its general character is 
— mid-vein waved, lateral veins forked shortly 
after leaving the mid-vein, the anterior branch 
bearing on its side the oblong sorus, about 
equi-distant from the mid-vein and margin ; 
the other branch becoming forked or not, 
according to the composition of the frond, 
one branch extending to each serrature : in 
the larger and more divided pinnules the 
lateral veins branch alternately, and bear 
more than one sorus. The sori are elongate- 
reniform, or somewhat sausage-shaped, co- 
vered with an indusium of the same form, 
opening towards the mid-vein, its free margin 
split into narrow segments. Smith remarks 
that the sori finally become nearly round, and 
the indusium orbicular, with a notch at the 
base, thus assuming in this stage the character 
of an Aspidium, to which genus he referred 
the plant. In incisum, trifidum, and molle, 
the sori are usually distinct; in convexum 
and multifidum confluent. The fructification 
is mature about September. 
" The species is abundant in most parts of 
Britain, and particularly so in Ireland ; and 
no doubt the varieties incisum, convexum, 
trifidum, and molle, are pretty generally dis- 
tributed, though there appear to be no statis- 
tics on this point. The other varieties or 
monstrosities are, I believe, only found in 
Ireland. Warm and moist woods and hedge- 
row banks are the favourite localities of this 
species, but it is not confined to such situ- 
ations, although in them it attains its great- 
est vigour and luxuriance. It also occurs 
throughout Europe, in Asia, Africa, and 
North America. 
" This species does not appear to be applied 
to any special use, except that in Ireland, 
where it abounds on all the bogs, it is em- 
ployed as a packing material for fish and fruit, 
as the common bracken is in this country. 
