222 
ASPIDIACE^. 
our list of species at present, and therefore merely enumerate 
them as varieties. 
Lastr(Ba muUiJlora, var. nana. 
This plant, of which a figure is given in 
the margin rather less than the natural size, 
is dwarf, rigid and convex in every part, and 
usually of a very dark green colour, some- 
times inclining to brown. The clusters of 
capsules are large, very distant, and conceal 
rather than are covered by a small shapeless 
involucre, on which I have never discovered 
the glands observable in the normal form of 
the plant. It is of frequent occurrence in the 
boggy and hill districts of Scotland and Ire- 
land, and I have seen it, although more spar- 
ingly, on the mountains of Wales. Its cha- 
racter did not appear changed by cultivation 
for two years at Leominster; yet I feel by no 
means satisfied that it is more than a starved 
state of the common plant, and if so, should 
not be admitted as a variety. 
LastT(£a multiflora, var. collina. 
I venture on giving this fern a distinguishing epithet, because 
neither of the descriptions of Polypodimn tanacetifolium, to 
which species I incline to refer it, is sufficiently definite to war- 
rant my giving it that name. The P. tanacetifoliwn is a species 
which appears to be almost unknown to living botanists. It was 
first described in 1795, by Hoffmann ; and as it may possibly 
turn out to be one of my three forms of Lastrcea multijiora, I 
shall quote the original description in a foot-note.* Rothf sup- 
* P. tanacetifolium, fronde bipinnata, stipite et pinnis basi aequalibus, pin- 
natifidis; pinnulis linearibus inciso-serratismucroiiatis; fructificatioiiibus sparsis 
in angulorum serratiiris. In sylvaticis montosis bine inde Maj. Oct. Involu- 
ernm subreniforme. — Hoffmann, Deutschlands Flora, ii. 8. 
f Variat pinnulis pinnarum infimis profunde inciso-serratis, reliquis omni- 
bus simpliciter serrato-spinulosis. Hue forsitan spectat Polypodium tanaceti- 
folium. [Here follows Hoffmann’s description already quoted]. Sane huic va- 
rietati proximum est, et vix species differe videtur.-— Roth, Flor. Germ. iii. 92. 
