PREFACE TO VOL. II. 
THE interest attaching to the subject of British Ferns seems to 
be increasing, if we may judge from the varied communications 
with which we are favoured. Our present and concluding volume, 
though swelled beyond its assigned limit, and including a lengthened 
Addenda, fails to keep pace with the subject, several interesting 
forms, and various particulars respecting the distribution both of the 
species and their varieties, having reached us since the last pages 
have been printed. We may particularly mention a beautiful form 
of Lady Fern found in Cornwall, which we propose to name, after 
its discoverer, Bullerie * ; and many particulars respecting the dis- 
tribution of the Ferns in Ireland, communicated by Dr. Kinahan, 
and Mr. F. J. Foot. The additional information thus accumulating, 
* ATHYRIUM FILIx-F@MINA v. BULLERIA (M.) This remarkably elegant crested 
variety of Lady Fern, is peculiar on account of the long narrow teeth of its small 
pinnules, and the obtuse dilated sharp-toothed tufts which terminate the fronds and 
the pinne. The fronds are about a foot long, and about two inches broad, tolerably 
symmetrical below, and divided at top into a corymbose tuft of branchlets about as 
broad as the frond itself. The pinne vary from seven-eighths of an inch to an inch 
and a quarter in length, averaging about an inch in the centre part of the frond, all 
the lower ones being deflexed ; they are broadest at the base and narrow gradually 
towards the tassel, which is spread out and many branched, the divisions leafy at the 
sides and having obtuse dilated apices which, like the pinnules, are sharply and con- 
spicuously toothed. The basal pinnules are oblong obtuse, sharply narrow-toothed 
as in odontomanes ; the other pinnules smaller with a few sharp teeth. It may be 
regarded as an elegantly crested form of the molle type, having prominent acute teeth, 
and may rank near multiceps (ii., 52), which is also a Cornish form. The plant was 
found about two years since growing on a shaded bank in the neighbourhood of 
Tregullow, Cornwall, by Mrs. Hornby Buller, to whom it is dedicated. 
VOL. II. y < b 

