330 BRITISH FERNS 
XXXIV 
Dicirata Mrs. Норсѕом (Jones) 
Mrs. J. K. Hodgson, Ulverstone. Westmoreland. (Raised) 1875. 
I Ее. Gin. 
It is clearly to the credit of this variety, that with such strong 
natural temptation to break out into extravagance—as is evident 
from the conduct of its pinnze—the plant itself should never have 
lost its head —for the apex of the frond shows no signs of cresting 
or even of furcation. Mrs. Hodgson writes: ‘“ When found, it 
did not show any digitate character, only a few of the pinnae were 
just bifid—but it was very young, only about eight inches high ; it 
has gone on improving, but I don't think it has ever had a frond 
divided at the apex ; I found it in Langdale.” 
Mr. Barnes includes under the name polydactyla the variety 
found nearly twenty years ago by Mr. Clarke, of the Glasgow Botanic 
Gardens, and long known in the trade as cristata ; this, like poly- 
dactylous forms generally, is crested at the apex; also cristata 
Clowes, found by J. Huddart, long ago, near Windermere. 


