71 
the base, gives it a peculiarly elegant aspect. The raid-stem 
or rachis in many cases most neatly undulates. Bulbs are 
produced at the points where the pinnae meet the mid-stem. 
By these bulbs young plants are more easily produced than 
by sowing the spores. Not all the plants have these little 
bulbs. If this Fern be placed in a small flower-pot so that 
the roots have not fair play, then nature will have its perfect 
work, and the roots will arise above the surface of the 
ground in the form of bulbs. Thus we find the poet’s 
assertion verified, 
“Naturam expeUas furca, tamen usque recurret.” — Horace. 
You may drive away nature with a pitch-fork, yet will she con- 
tinually return. 
5. Variable Angular Prickly Fern. Variahile, In all 
the other forms that have been described of this species, the 
branched leaflets or pinnules are little more than a fourth 
the length of the pinna, and appear only as leaves. In this, 
the rachis of the pinnae often divides, sometimes almost close 
to the mid-stem, and at other times higher up, into two or 
three branches of nearly equal length. We may therefore 
say that such pinnae are truly branched. Not all the pinnae 
on the frond are thus divided. The unbranched ones are 
much the longest. This produces great irregularity in the 
outline of the frond. Thus, in our specimen, the plant 
tapers at the extremity for three and a half inches, where 
only a few of the pinnae are branched. About two and a 
half inches beneath, the frond is three and a half inches 
wide, and the pinnae are altogether unbranched. Between 
this point and the base, measuring seven inches, the pinnae are 
shorter and separated into distinct branches, and the frond 
is only two inches wide. In some cases the frond is again 
wider near the base, and the branching ceases. Most of the 
leaflets are of the ordinary appearance, and doubly serrated. 
They have also rather long bristles. We have been thus 
minute in our description, to show how variable this form 
is. Others may be met with in the district larger or smaller, 
having their undivided and divided pinnae in a difierent 
position. The distinct branching is the essential and leading 
characteristic. One plant has been found in the hedge-bank 
of a field near Axminster, close to the Lyme road. 
