SCOLOPENDRIUM VULGARE 227 
fronds, or even extended and divided at the tip, transforming the 
frond into a trident, with or without tassels at the points (S. г. 
sagittatum). The smooth surface has been broken up in all sorts of 
ways, roughened (rugose, muricate, etc.), ridged above or below, 
and so on, and even the spore heaps, in one variety, gymnosorum, 
have lost their Spleenwort character and been resolved into an 
irregular scattering of capsules on the frond back, without any 
indusium or cover at all. To crown all, in many forms two or more 
of these peculiarities are combined, so that the possibilities are 
inexhaustible. 
With this prelude, which, as will be seen, amply justifies our claim 
on behalf of our familiar Hartstongue as the most variable Fern in 
existence, we will now proceed to figure and describe some of the 
most marked types extant, excluding those which are merely 
eccentric, inconstant, or defective. Where the figures show the 
variety clearly, we have refrained from needless description. 
BIMARGINATUM.—Found at Ulverston by Mr. Hadwin ; narrow 
form, with marginal excrescence on both sides of the frond. 
BIMARGINATO-MULTIFIDUM (Fig. 265).—Fronds consist of a mid- 
rib fringed with irregular, toothed projections, and bearing a 
branched head of somewhat leafier character, but all very narrow. 





Fig. 265. S. v. bimarginato-multifidum. 


