84 THE BRITISH FERNS. 
slightly faleate, deeply pinnatifid, with obtuse serrated segments, the 
lowest of which are almost separate. We have received it from 
Dr. G. Lawson, and Mr. Croall, gathered at the White Water Falls 
and elsewhere in the Clova mountains; Mr. Croall has also com- 
municated the same form from Loch-na-gar, Aberdeenshire. 
= 8. tripinnatum (M.). The fronds of this form are large, stout, 
tripinnate ; the pinnules, which are from an inch to an inch and a- 
half long, are oblong-ovate, with separate, oblong, secondary pin- 
nules, the upper of which are united by the wing of the rachis, but 
the lower are separate to their base. It is analogous to fine states 
of Athyrium Filiz-femina incisum. Dr. G. Lawson gathered it at 
the Wells of. Dee, Aberdeenshire. 
4. laciniatum (M.). An elegant variety raised from spores of the 
species by Messrs. Stansfield and Son, of Todmorden, in 1857. It 
is analogous to the laciniate varieties of the Lady Fern, having the 
pinnules irregularly depauperated, or jagged, or confluent, the pinnze 
themselves, as regards their length, not being much affected in the 
specimens we have seen. 
The smaller and more usual, at least the more usually collected, 
forms of this plant, are analogous to the smaller forms of Athyrium 
Füliz-femina; even these, however, exhibit differences in habit, 
some being quite erect, while others are spreading, as in the 
Lady Fern. l 
We suspect that a dwarf barren monstrous shy-growing plant 
found by Dr. Dickie on Ben-Mac-d'hui, and hitherto referred to 
Athyrium Filix-femina (var. premorsum), belongs rather to this 
species. It has been thus described in our folio edition :—* This 
curious dwarf, and as yet barren form, was found by Dr. Dickie 
on * Ben-na- Muich-dhu', at an altitude of 3700 feet, in 1846, and 
has since that time proved constant under cultivation. The fronds 
Which rarely attain a height of eight inches, are of an irregular 
ovate-lanceolate outline. The pinne are unequal, and the pinnules 
are oblong and decurrent, lacerate, and irregular as if they had been 
partially eaten by an insect. It is exceedingly rare." 

