
THE MALE FERN. — 189 
8. biformis (M.). This a dwarf form, accidentally raised from 
spores in the Chelsea Botanic Garden. It produces two forms of 
fronds, a portion being dwarf and normal, and the rest much depau- 
perated, the pinnules being very small and confluent, so that the 
pinne are linear, with distant minute marginal lobes, the larger of 
which are serrated. It has remained for three years constant to 
these peculiarities. 
4. incisa (M.). This is altogether a larger and more striking plant 
than the normal form, of which it is probably the full development. 
It is of robust, stately habit, averaging three or four feet, but some- 
times reaching six feet in height, with a stipes of five or six inches 
in length. The fronds in unfolding liberate the point, which 
becomes bent like the curve of a shepherd’s crook, as in the 
common plant; they are distinctly bipinnate, lanceolate, not con- 
tracting abruptly near the apex. The pinne are elongate, tapering 
gradually to the apex. The pinnules are somewhat less closely 
placed; the basal ones notched, often deeply, on each side their 
base, thus having a narrow attachment, elongately pyramidate- 
oblong, broadest at the base, and with a narrow though rounded 
apex; the rest more broadly attached, and more equal in width; 
the margins more or less deeply inciso-lobate, the lobes three to 
five-toothed. The venation is more highly developed than in the 
common form, thus :一 a vein is directed up the centre of each lobe, 
and this bears alternately several venules; but the sori are, notwith- 
standing, produced only on the anterior basal venule of each fascicle, 
so that, as in the normal form, they are ranged in a single line on 
each side the midvein, commonly extending, however, much nearer 
to the apex of the pinnule. The indusium is here reniform as 
in the other, convex, entire, and persistent, but not inflected as 
in paleacea. The irregularly deformed monstrous leafy develop- 
ments of this variety constitute the Aspidium depastum of Schkuhr. 
[Plate XXIII B.—Folio ed. t. XV.] 
This variety is probably equally common with the type form, and 
appears as widely dispersed. The following habitats are known :一 
Peninsula.—Devonshire : Lindridge, Teignmouth, Miss A. Hosea- 
son; Combe Martin, C. C. Babington. Somersetshire: Bridgewater ; 
Nettlecombe, C. Elworthy. 

