THE LADY FERN. : 41 
whom it has been found at Harrogate in Yorkshire; and from 
Messrs. Stansfield of Todmorden, found in Sussex by Mr. S. Nowell. 
[Plate LX B.] 
35. laciniatum (M.). A very pretty small form, which hardly 
admits of description, on account of the variableness of its character, 
and the many modifications under which it is met with. The 
typal and more characteristic plants have the general lanceolate 
ontline of the frond broken up by the irregular abbreviation of some 
of the pinne; some are quite short, others are caudate or acuminate 
in the ordinary way, while others again are preemorse, the outline 
of the frond thus becoming very irregular. The pinnules are decur- 
rent, very variable in size and form, and very irregularly and 
usually deeply laciniated. The sori are numerous, and crowded 
about the base of the laciniate lobes. Occasionally the fronds are 
much more depauperated, scarcely any of the pinnœ being developed 
beyond the size of an ordinary pinnule, and these flabellate or trun- 
cate or lobate or even palmate, all intermixed; while in some other 
instances, the pinnules are nearly all depauperated, and replaced by a 
long linear laeiniate-toothed pinna. Sometimes a few nearly or quite 
round pinnules are produced; and the plants are liable, especially if 
freely grown, to produce fronds in which the parts revert in some 
measure to a normal character. This variety was first described 
from fronds sent from Nettlecombe in Somersetshire by Mr. Elworthy. 
Another excellent form, for which the name decompositum had been 
suggested, has been sent by Mr. A. Clapham; this was found near 
Thirsk, Yorkshire, by Mr. R. Foxton. We have other forms of 
the same general character, but not quite identical, from— West- 
moreland: Windermere, G. B. Wollaston. Yorkshire: Harrogate, 
A. Clapham. Lancashire: Todmorden, A. Stansfield; Prescott, 
R. Morris. Somersetshire: Nettlecombe, C. Elworthy. Sussex: 
Balcombe, G. Hankey. Edinburgh, A. Tait. Others again, rather 
less marked, are from—Yorkshire : Scarborough, A. Clapham. North 
of Ireland, A. Stansfield. [Plate LIX A.] 
There are some additional forms related to laciniatum, that may 
be conveniently ranked as subvarieties. The most important are— 
— laciniatum majus (M.). A larger plant than laciniatum, but 
very similarly depauperated in the upper half, the lower half being 

