BRITISH FERNS 
XXXV 
CRISTATA BARNES (Woll.) 
Mr. J. M. Barnes. Westmoreland. 1871. 
21117 
The grandest discovery of recent years—it holds the same place 
among montanas that the old cristata did, and does, among the 
male ferns. One can hardly help feeling that it is just a 776 bit 
unfair that this and montana Barnestt (wide No. XXXVI) should 
have both fallen to the lot of one discoverer—at least, one would 
have been inclined to do so if it hadn’t been Mr. Barnes— who 
writes: “ It was but a small plant when I found it, with four or five 
fronds, but at least one of these had spores; these I sowed at once 
and in the following year three distinct forms appeared in about 
equal proportions, one-third being normal Z. montana, one-third 
cristata and named by Moore coronans, and one-third ramo- 
angustate and wonderfully crested ; these were named by Moore 
cristata angustissima ; there would I think be about 150 plants in 
all, —say so of each of the three forms ;—no two plants are just 
alike either in cresting or narrowness of frond, in the latter respect 
ranging from 3 of an inch to 12 inches in width ; there is only 
one plant out of the above seedlings that I call grandiceps, 
although there are three or four that come near it in the form of 
cresting and size of the head.” 
Mr. Barnes records the following other crested forms, —attenuata 
cristata (Moore) found by Mr. Barnes at Mardale, in 1865, and 
caudata cristata (Barnes) found by Mr. Crouch at Rydal Head in 
1863. 

