THE LADY FERN. 55 
. besides the apical portion; the other bears a tuft of three branches 
and then a single branch below the apical part. In general character 
the branches are alike; they bear a few distant pinn® which are 
from a quarter of an inch to an inch in length, these pinne bearing 
short oblong laciniate-toothed pinnules, and a little terminal tuft of 
branchlets; then comes the terminal head, a densely-branched mass 
of finely-divided segments, averaging about a couple of inches in 
depth, and two to three inches in breadth. The branches forming 
these crispy tufts bear a few ordinary pinnules at the base, but at 
the extremity they are divided into a multitude of fine divisions 
which are laciniately toothed. The other parts are similarly divided. 
There are a few of the small pinn® on the main branch below the 
secondary branches. Other fronds branch higher up, and have 
rather more developed pinne, and the apex more spreading 
and less tufted, but divided in the same way. It is one of 
the most elegant of dwarf crispy ferns. The plant was gathered 
. Some years since on the moors near Rievaulx Abbey, by Mr. C. 
Monkman, and is in the possession of Mr. A. Clapham, to whom 
we owe our knowledge ofit. [Plate LXV.] 
65. crispum (M.). This singular variety has more the appearance 
of a tuft of fine curled parsley than of a Fern. It is of slender and 
dwarfish habit, usually about six or eight inches high, but sometimes 
upwards of a foot. The fronds are ramified in every possible way, 
the rachis being divided irregularly, and each apex densely tufted 
in compact obtuse tassels. The pinne and pinnules are very unsym- 
metrically divided, and the former are frequently wanting for a long 
` portion of the stipes. The fructification is generally abortive, but 
not always so. Itisa very elegant dwarf plant, and was originally 
found by Mr. A. Smith, on Orah, a hill in the county of Antrim, 
Ireland. Subsequently it has been gathered in Corymulzie Lynn, 
Braemar, Scotland, by Sir W. C. Trevelyan ; and still more recently 
at Todmorden, Lancashire, by Mr. J. Huddart. [Plate LXVI.— 
Folio ed. t. XXXIV A.] 



