

158 THE BRITISH FERNS. 
branches being divergent but plane, and formed of pinnules which 
are in various degrees confluent. It is hence analogous to the 
“many-fingered” variety of the Lady Fern. The variety is of Irish 
origin, having been found in 1857 in Tipperary, whence it was sent 
to Mr. R. Sim of Footscray. The subsequent growths have proved 
constant. [Plate XXVII B.] 
A curious form, which may be mentioned here under the pro- 
visional name of congestwm, has the pinnules in the upper half of 
the frond more or less diminished or depauperated along the basal 
portion of their rachis, the pinne being truncate, with the two or 
three apical pinnules acute, deeply toothed, and rather enlarged so as 
to form on each an abrupt terminal tuft or head. The apex of the 
frond, which is attenuated, is similarly affected. The lower pinn® 
are normal, with small blunt pinnules. Barnstaple, C. Jackson. 
40. cristatum (M.). This very beautiful variety resembles im its 
general features the well-known and universally admired tasselled 
varieties of the Male Fern and the Lady Fern; that is to say, the 
apex of the frond itself, as well as the apices of the pinne, are 
expanded into multifid curly or crispy tufts, those of the pinn® 
being less developed than that which terminates the frond. The 
remaining portions of the frond are normal in character. This 
form has been found in several places, and there is a slight diversity 
among the. plants, but they all agree in their general aspect and 
characters so closely, that they must be regarded as one form. 
Our figure representing only a small frond, does not show the 
tufts so fully developed as they often occur when in a more vigorous 
state; in any form it is, however, a very handsome plant. It has 
been found in—Devonshire : near Bristol, J. Hillman; Ottery St. 
Mary, G. B. Wollaston ; Bickington, C. Jackson; and elsewhere 
in the same county by the Rev. J. M. Chanter. Somersetshire : 
Nettlecombe, C. Elworthy. [Plate XX VII A.] 
41. multifidum (Woll.). The apex of the frond in this variety 
is variously branched or tufted, and various states of it have been 
met with, some of which prove inconstant, while others are per- 
manent. We have received fronds from—Devonshire: Newton 
Abbott, W. Green; Ilfracombe, Rev. J. M. Chanter ; Barnstaple, 
and Westleigh, C. Jackson. A multifid form referrible to the 

