THE COMMON HART'S-TONGUE FERN. 147 
of the varieties are proliferous, and may be increased by means of their 
buds. The plants may also be divided when the crowns are double; or 
the varieties may be propagated by cuttings of the succulent bases of 
the decayed fronds, a mode of increase discovered by Mr. C. Jackson.* 
The fleshy bases of the stipes which are the parts made use of, remain 
alive long after the fronds have decayed; these are cut asunder 
with a sharp knife, retaining a portion of the rind of the caudex, and 
planted like root cuttings in a slight warmth, and under these condi- 
tions they soon organise buds from the cut edges, and so form young 
plants. 
None of the British Ferns have proved so prolific of varieties as 
the Hart’s-Tongue, of which indeed the forms seem endless. We 
have already indicated several of these, which may be taken as the 
types of a series of other variations, the greater part of which are now 
proved to be permanent, and a large proportion of which are distinct 
enough to serve the purpose of the cultivator. One of the most 
curious deviations from the normal state, is that in which the sori are 
usually without the ordinary covers to the spore-cases; this must be 
considered as a case of abortion. "There are other formsin which the 
margin is variously cleft or toothed or lobed, the variations of these 
peculiarities being numerous; while some are crisped or curled along 
the margins; others sagittate at the base; some furnished with an 
excurrent membrane on the under or sometimes on the upper surface ; 
others have the upper surface variously muricate or warty ; some 
have the costa growing out into a horn; and numerous others again 
have the tips of the fronds variously multifid and cristate, and the 
stipites variously ramose. These forms, so far as they have been 
recognised, we shall enumerate in their several series. The arrange- 
ment we have followed is quite artificial, many of the forms being so 
composite in character that they Belong equally to more than one 
group. In such eases we have placed them in the group or series 
with which they seem to have most affinity, and have repeated the 
names under the other series to which the plants are referrible. 
The forms of the Hart's-Tongue Fern are mostly permanent, and 
as they prove to be easily cultivated, they are much prized as 
* Moore, in Gardeners Chronicle, 1856, 132. 
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