THE LADY FERN. 
91 
the receptacle, while the anterior one (that toward 
the midvein of the pinnnle) becomes free, and is split 
into a fringe of hair-like segments. 
The Lady Fern is common all over England and 
Ireland, less so in Wales and Scotland (in the High¬ 
lands at an altitude of 3,000 feet), but found in all 
our northern, western, and Channel Islands ; it is 
found also in one or other of its forms from Lapland 
to Crete, from the Ural mountains to Kamschatka, 
from the Mediterranean to India, from Abyssinia to 
Algeria, from Canada to British Columbia, and in the 
United States and South America. It is perhaps the 
most prolific in varieties of all our British species, the 
varieties being very marked, singular, and permanent. 
It is common everywhere in the Lake Country. 
