but the importance given to these differences, even of the slightest 
and most insignificant character, at the present day, is something 
almost absurd. A dioarf-groioing form makes one of these va¬ 
rieties ; and a permanently small dwarf constitutes another. The 
consequence of such hair-splitting is, that if this small dwarf 
should happen not to be permanent, it will add another to the 
list of varieties. I have not thought it needful to particularize 
more than two British forms, neither of them perhaps of rare oc¬ 
currence ; both of these have been made species by authors, viz. 
the var. incisum , which is the Aspid. depastum of Schk., and 
probably the Aspidium erosum of the same author (though that 
is referred by Mettenius and others to Nephrod. dilatatum ), and 
the var. paieacea . The type of this latter is Don’s Aspidium 
paleaceum of Nepal, common enough in other parts of India 
and elsewhere; and the main characters depend upon having 
“truncatedly obtuse pinnules, and stipes and rachis shaggy with 
long tapering scales, usually of a lustrous golden-brown colour.” 
Now the plant I have figured here, I believe is the British state 
of this variety, from Braemar {Mr. Croall ), and the so-called 
Bryopteris Borreri of Mr. Newman (of which he says that “ cer¬ 
tainty many, and possibly most of the synonyms cited for Filix- 
mas, belong to this plant”). Indeed, I am disposed to consider 
it a good representative of the normal or most perfect condition 
of the species. There is also a remarkable state of our present 
species which Mr. Moore has called cristatum , and of which he 
has given excellent representations, l. c. t. 16. The pinnae are 
contracted and proliferous in a crested manner at the apex, and 
it is much prized in ferneries ; but it has more the appearance of 
a diseased plant than what is ordinarily deemed a variety. A 
pinna is given at our Fig. 4. 
I have not space to enumerate the many exotic localities of 
what I believe to be specifically identical with this wide-spread 
Fern, in the tropics as well as in temperate climates, some of 
which indeed have very marked peculiarities, and have even 
given rise to two new genera, Bichasmm, Braun and Fee, and 
Artobotrgs of Wallich (see our remarks under N. Filix-mas, var. 
paieacea , in Fil. Exot. t. 98). 
Plate 15. Pig. 1, 2. Nephr odium (Lastrea) Filix-mas, Eich., —natural size. 
3. Segment from a fertile pinna, showing the venation and sori,— magnified. 
4. Single sorus ,—more magnified. 5. Var. incisum , portion of pinna ,—natural 
size. 6. Pinna of a peculiar cristate form (a monstrosity ),—natural size. 
