

26 THE BRITISH FERNS. 
5. latifolium (Bab.). This is a peculiar-looking variety of Lady 
Fern, and being like other varieties reproduced from the spores, we 
cannot, as some have done, regard it as a nonentity, Its most 
remarkable peculiarities consist in the irregular outline of the pinne, 
in the densely crowded condition and unequal size, as well as uneven 
toothing or laciniation of the pinnules, and in the situation of the 
sori. The fronds are three feet or more in height, bipinnate, oblong- 
lanceolate, flaccid, and of a dark green colour, The stipes is about 
the average length, scaly especially below, stout; the rachis also is 
stout. The pinne are short, and distant below, approximate or even 
crowded upwards, alternate, linear-oblong, irregular in outline, with 
a tendency to become cuspidate at the apex. The pinnules are ovate, 
or oblong-ovate, blunt or acute, flat, unequal in size, oblique, the 
anterior side being largest, stalked or having a narrow stalk-like 
attachment, overlapping ; they are laciniate-pinnatifid, deeply so at 
the base, the lobes oblong and irregularly toothed ; the lobes become 
smaller upwards, and eventually towards the apex merge into long 
aeute teeth, the teeth being usually unequal in size; the peculiar 
toothed margin produces a fimbriated appearance. The veins are 
branched in the manner already described, and the sori are produced 
on the anterior side of the lowest anterior venule; but the vein be- 
comes branched at a greater distance from the midvein than is usually 
the case, and thus the sori are ranged in two distant lines, about mid- 
way between the midvein and the margin; they are small and con- 
spieuously curved. This variety was found by Miss Wright, near 
Keswick, in Cumberland, where but a plant or two was discovered ; 
and it does not appear to have been met with elsewhere. Itis a 
very graceful variety of vigorous habit. [Plate LIV A.—Folio ed. 
t. XXXI B.] 
6. conioides (App.). This form grows about a couple of feet in 
height, and its ‘pale-coloured stipites are furnished with light brown 
scales. The fronds are broad lanceolate, and in the outline and 
cutting of their divisions have a certain resemblance to the leaves 
of the hemlock, whence the name. The pinne are irregular in 
outline, rather distant and more or less acuminate; the pinnules 
are variable in size and outline, usually ovate, sometimes oblong, 
decurrent at the base, somewhat distant, notched with shallow 

