106 
THE FERN FAMILIES OF BRITAIN. 
L. dilatata lias afforded numerous very distinct and beautiful 
varieties. 
Ii. d. alpina plumosa (alpine, feathery). A very beautiful 
plumose form, of normal outline, recently found on Ben Nevis. 
E. d. crispata cristata (crisped, crested). A very fine 
form, with wide, branchy heads ; large grower, sometimes 2|ft. 
high, with crests 1ft. in diameter. 
E. d. cristata gracilis (crested, slender) (10). A very beauti- 
ful, slender-growing, crested form; fronds and pinnae flatly 
tasselled, unfortunately with a tendency to irregularity, but 
not to reversion. 
E. d. folioso-cristata (leafy, crested) (15). This is a magni- 
ficently crested form ; fronds and pinnae heavily and sym- 
metrically bunch tasselled; all the divisions are, moreover, 
very leafy, and slightly convex, giving a very rich appearance. 
This Fern is occasionally proliferous, bearing young plants 
on the frond-stalks, near the bottom. This variety was found 
in the Azores; so was 
E. d. folioso-digitata (leafy, digitate). A kindred but 
distinct form, not quite so leafy, and with flat, spreading 
crests instead of leafy ones. These two forms, and some 
crested exotic Ferns, Woodwardia radicans to wit, were found 
in the Azores by the same botanist, and form a strong 
argument in favour of our contention that crested varieties 
of most exotics exist, and only need special search to be found. 
E. d. grandiceps (large-crested), Barnes (1). A wild find, and 
the most heavily crested of all, the crests being ball-shaped, 
and very dense. Yery handsome and constant. 
E. d. Howardii (Howard’s). Wild find, and too curious 
a sport to be omitted, the pinnje being almost exact copies, 
on a smaller scale, of the fronds of Athyrium Filix-foemina 
Fieldice, i.e,, the pinnules are transformed into short, radiating 
clusters. 
E. d. lepidota (scaly). A non-crested but very finely 
divided form; fronds divided four times. Well worth a place 
in a choice collection. 
E. d. polydactyla (many-fingered). Flat, many-fingered 
crests. 
