THE BLACK MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT. 87 
variegation, being distinctly margined with yellowish white. As 
this latter does not, however, appear to have again been met with, 
we mention it only thus incidentally. 
7. acutidentatum (M.). A large form with caudate divisions, and 
prominent acute teeth, having much resemblance to acutum, but the 
pinne are narrower, and the lobes of the pinnules are broader. The 
pinnules are ovate-lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid, the lobes being 
narrowly oblong-cuneate, notched principally at the ends with linear 
acute teeth. The sori are crowded in the centre of the pinnules. 
It has been found at Ilfracombe, in Devonshire, by the Rev. J. M. 
Chanter; and in Somersetshire, near Nettlecombe, by Mr. C. 
Elworthy. [Plate LXXI E.] 
8. fissum (M.). This is a large growing plant, the fronds 
broadly ovate or pentagonal, sometimes oblong or ramose or irre- 
gular in development. The more perfect fronds are tripinnate at 
the base of the pinnules, which become more or less confluent in the 
upper parts, as are the pinnas. The pinnules are large and coarse, 
but with a very irregular development and a narrowed or wedge- 
shaped character below, more or less lobed upwards, the lobes 
unequally eut into long narrow acute teeth. The sori, which are 
plentiful and much elongated generally, are in some cases on the 
confluent portions in the upper part of the pinne fully half-an-inch 
long. It is altogether a remarkably sportive plant, very inconstant 
to any precise form, though retaining the same general characters. 
The fronds are often more or less caudate; the pinnules abnormal- 
looking, and irregularly cut into long linear acute entire segments or 
lobes, answering to the acute teeth of the usual states of the plant ; 
some of the pinnules may be said to be palmately-laciniate. We 
have received this form from: Miss Hoseason, who gathered it at 
Combe Royal, near Kingsbridge, in South Devon; from the late 
Mr. Ingpen, who obtained it of a London hawker; and the more 
irregular form from Mr. Clapham, who had received it as a garden 
plant under the name of obtusum. [Plate LXXI D.] 
9. incisum (Claph.) A dwarf ovate or ovate-triangular tri- 
pinnate form. The pinne are short and broad, nearly deltoid in 
outline; the larger pinnules nearly of the same form, but propor- 
tionately smaller, cut into three segments or secondary pinnules, of 

