144 BRITISH FERNS 
thrice-divided fronds (Fig. 148), very broad at the base, and 
sometimes four or five feet long. 
They are of spreading habit, with 
bright green stalks of some length, 
and spring from a stout, erect 
caudex, but less compact than that 
of L. filix-mas and others, which 
send up their fronds in erect 
circlets. The round spore heaps 
are fairly large, and very plentiful 
and dark in colour, the kidney- 
shaped indusium obvious, but only 
partly covering them when ripe. 
7; Our plate gives a good idea of the 
form. It has “sported” fairly 
freely, and is a very variable fern 
in minor details, but a great many 
of the forms recorded are too 
erratic or indefinite to recommend 
for culture, and for that reason 
are probably not now in existence. 
These we ignore. 
CRISTATA (Fig. r49).— Found near 
Doncaster by Mr. Appleby; prettily 
crested at frond and pinne tips; a 
better form was found in Devonshire 
by Mr. С. Jackson, and another by 
Mrs. Thompson, also in Devon. 
C. DruERY.—Found by the writer at 
Clovelly; a very robust form with 
bunch crests of medium size. 
Fig 148. 2. dilatata 
(parts of pinna). 
. C. Oscnorr.—Found near Bristol ; 
a very finely bunch-tasselled form, 
somewhat crispy in make. 
C. GRACILE ROBERTS.—A very pretty 
percristate form, the pinnules being 
fanned. Unfortunately, though pro- 
duced so freely from spores as to appear 
abundantly as strays under glass, all 
without exception have a tendency to 
partial depauperation, short pinna oc- 
curring here and there. 
FOLIOSA-CRISTATA, F. DIGITATA.— 
Although found in the Azores by Mr. ИР 
Brown, and therefore best grown under Fig. 149. 2. ай, cristata (pinna). 

