THE LADY FERN. i 33 
form and cutting, and remarkable in an equal degree on account of 
the very peculiar nature of the fructification. The fronds are about 
two feet and a half in height, and ten inches or upwards in breadth, 
the stipes occupying about the usual proportion of the height; the 
outline is hence very broadly lanceolate, and the division is distinctly 
tripinnate. The pinns at the centre of the frond in the largest 
fronds we have seen, are about five and a half inches long, and. two 
and a half inches in breadth, so that the longer pinnules measure 
fully an inch and a quarter; they are nearly parallel-sided, and end 
in a shortish aeuminate point; and they are rather distant below, 
approximate or sometimes erowded above. The pinnules are ovate 
acuminate, overlapping, divided down to the slender margined costa, 
into distinet sometimes distant secondary pinnules, which are linear, 
half an inch long, inciso-pinnatifid, with narrow linear segments, 
of which the lowermost are unequally bifid or three-cleft with 
linear acute teeth. These ultimate divisions are so narrow and so 
numerous, that the fronds are especially remarkable for the plumy 
lightness and elegance of their character. The sori are very im- 
perfect, consisting of but few spore-cases, which are almost if not 
quite without indusia! they are situated just at the sinuses of the 
narrow secondary pinnules at their anterior base, and at the tip of 
the basal anterior veinlets, which seem to be there nearly excurrent, 
so that the sori are almost davallioid; the teeth are sometimes 
ineurved towards the sori. We have here and there traced an indis- 
tinct membrane in connection with the spore-cases, but nowhere a > 
perfectly formed characteristic indusium. The abnormal develop- 
ment of the. fructiferous organs, evidenced alike by the paucity of 
spore-cases and the want of indusium, is, no doubt, as in numerous 
other well-known cases, to be referred to the peculiar and excessive 
development and division of the leafy organs. The spore-cases 
are, nevertheless, not abortive, however abnormal the condition of the 
sori may be, as we learn that young plants have been raised, quite 
true to their peculiar character, from the spores of the parent plant. 
It was found by Mr. J. Horsfall, near Skipworth in Yorkshire, in 
the autumn of 1857, and is in the possession of Messrs. Stansfield of 
Todmorden, to whom we are indebted for specimens. [Plate 
LII B; LVI, bis.] 
VOL. II. 

