LADY FERN. 
243 
Athyrium Filix-femina^ var. dentatumJ^ 
Athyrium ovatum, Roth. 
This plant seems intermediate between the two which precede 
it ; in habit and size it resembles A. molley but in the structure 
of the lobes, A. trijidum. From A. molle it differs in being more 
rigid, denser, darker in colour, and in having more scales scat- 
tered over the ribs : in the pinnules being more ovate and more 
deeply divided, in the lobes being larger and more diverging, the 
lower ones are dentate at the margin and trifid at the apex, the 
upper ones bifid at the apex, all of them are truncated. It will 
be observed that this combines two of Hoffmann’s species, but 
Roth says they scarcely differ from each other. 
Athyrium Filix-femina, var. incisum.\ (See figure h, p. 244). 
Athyrium Filix-femma, Roth. 
The fronds of this plant often attain a length of four and some- 
times five feet, and a breadth of eighteen inches ; its rhizoma 
grows to an immense size, and when perfectly undisturbed for 
many years in a favorable situation, rises above the surface of the 
ground, and throws up a most striking and beautiful head of 
fronds, often thirty or forty in number. The colour, however, 
in comparison with that of A. molle, is much less bright, and in- 
deed is often a dull and obscure green : the pinnae are very broad, 
and those in the middle of the frond are often nine inches long: 
the pinnules are very distinct from each other, and almost, or in 
some cases quite, pinnate, the lobes being flat, diverging, and 
sharply toothed; the divisions of the frond being so much more 
numerous than in A. molle, the clusters of capsules are multipli- 
ed in proportion, so that instead of presenting a bilinear series, 
as in that plant, they appear thickly but irregularly scattered over 
the frond. Roth describes a variety of this plant, distinguished 
by its smaller size, its narrower and linear-lanceolate pinnules ; 
and this he supposes to be Hoffmann’s Polypodium incisum. I 
scarcely entertain a doubt that Hoffmann intended to include 
both the larger and smaller plants, the differences being quite 
insufficient to distinguish between them. 
* In this instance I adopt Hoffmann’s name, as having the claim of priority, 
f In this instance I adopt Hoffmann’s name, because the name Filix-femina 
being employed for the species will not also serve for the variety. 
