- 88 THE BRITISH FERNS. 













which the two lateral ones are obovate-wedge-shaped, cut into 
numerous long acute teeth at the apex, and the centre one is larger 
and somewhat lobate as well as toothed. In some fronds the parts 
are smaller, and the pinnules are more ovate, with several segments, 
the lower of which are three-cleft. In other cases the long, acute 
teeth appear like a fringe to the divisions of the frond. It was found 
at the Bridestones, near Snainton, Yorkshire, by Mr. Thompson, 
and was communicated by Mr. Clapham. 
10. intermedium (M.). The fronds of this variety are of large 
size and lax habit, these features being coincident with an elon- 
gation of the parts, and a thin though firm texture of the fronds. 
It has often been wrongly associated with acutum, from which it 
differs in having more elongated and less compound fronds, and in 
the greater breadth of their ultimate divisions. The pinne and the 
fronds are caudate; the pinnules elongated and acuminate, but 
there are no linear segments of the pinnules. It seems to bear 
about the same degree of relation to the normal state as obtusum, 
but in an opposite direction, and we enumerate it as a variety, 
merely in order to point out the steps by which the more usual 
state of the plant, approaches the distinet-looking acute form. We 
have received it principally from the West of England, Ireland, 
and the Channel Isles, namely:—Devonshire: Barnstaple, C. 
Jackson ; Ilfracombe, J. Dodds ; Ottery St. Mary, G. B. Wollaston. 
Somersetshire : Nettlecombe, Sir W. C. Trevelyan. Kent: Sand- 
gate, S .O. Gray. Dumfries-shire: Moffat, J. Anderson. Dublin: 
Hill of the Grange, R. Barrington. Limerick: Ballywilliam, Mrs. 
Barrington. Antrim, D. Moore. Guernsey, C. Jackson. Jersey, 
C. Jackson. 
11. decompositum (M.). This, like acutum, is almost or even 
quite quadripinnate, and may be briefly deseribed as resembling 
that variety in the form of its fronds and pinnæ, and even pinnules, 
but the ultimate parts, though narrow, are blunt,as if rounded off, 
not acute as in that, and the texture is more coriaceous. The 
divisions, moreover, although small and comparatively narrow, are 
not so much narrowed as in acutum; and the absence of linear seg- 
ments, and the bluntness of the few teeth that are apparent, 
readily distinguish it from that variety. We have received it from 

