THE LADY FERN. 
91 
A. P.-f. splendens (splendid) (3). A very beautifully crested, 
somewbat plumose form; pinnules crested througbout. 
A. F.-f. Vernonise (Yernon’s). A very beautiful wild fin^of 
normal outline, but witb peculiarly crisped and wavy divisions, 
giving it a most distinct character. Its spores bave yielded 
A. P.-f. Vern. corymbifemm (corymb-bearing), a densely 
ball-crested dwarf form. 
A. F.-f. Vern. cristatum (crested), Jones (18), witb flat 
crests to frond and pinnae; extremely neat and pretty. 
A. P.-f. Victorise (Victoria’s) (1). Tbis Fern, wbicb was found 
wild by a roadside in Scotland, is one of tbe most extraordinary 
sports yet discovered or raised ; it may indeed be classed as 
quite unparalleled, since not only are all its extremities very 
slenderly and symmetrically tasselled in a style of its own, but 
all tbe divisions, even to tbe pinnules, are in duplicate, and 
set on at nearly right angles to each other. Tbe fronds and 
tbe divisions are also very narrow, and hence instead of pre- 
senting a crowded appearance, tbe frond looks like a series 
of beautifully tasselled crosses radiating from tbe central stalk 
and gradually diminishing towards tbe tip, where they merge 
into a dense, terminal tassel, of many slender strands, tasselled 
again at their tips. As repeated search in tbe locality led to 
no discovery of other plants like it or of an intermediate 
character, and the form has never been re-discovered else- 
where, we are forced to tbe conclusion that tbis marvellous 
caprice of Nature is tbe direct offspring of a common Lady 
Fern, though we can form no conception of the subtle influence 
which could so have affected the presumably solitary spore, and 
caused it to depart so widely from the parent form in the 
plant to which it gave birth. The spores of Victorim are 
quite constant, but generally yield plants of somewhat coarser 
character, though of same type. No other Fern has yet been 
discovered varying in same way. Mr. E. J. Lowe has raised 
from this 
A. P.-f. Viet, gracile (slender), a slenderer form throughout. 
A. P.-f. Viet, magniilcuiii (magnificent). A robust form 
with the twin character more distinctly marked in the pin- 
nules, they being longer than in the original find. 
