



148 THE BRITISH FERNS. 
garden ornaments on account of their variety of form and their 
cheerful hue. Indeed, a collection of Seolopendriums alone might be 
made sufficiently extensive to engage the interest of many an ama- 
teur cultivator, and yet thoroughly free from anything like monotony 
of character, though originating from one which in its normal state is 
the most simple among British Ferns. This fact will account for 
the large number of them which have been received as garden 
plants under distinctive names, and which we shall briefly notice 
and endeavour to distinguish. Many of the following notes were 
obligingly drawn up and communicated for our folio edition by Mr. 
G. B. Wollaston, of Chislehurst, whose own collection of living 
plants contains one of the most extensive series of these varieties. 
We have also to acknowledge the receipt of very ample materials 
from the rich collections of Sir W. C. Trevelyan, Bart., of Nettle- 
combe; Mr. A. Clapham of Scarborough; Mr. J. James, of 
Vauvert, Guernsey; the Rev. J. M. Chanter, of Ilfracombe; and 
Mr. C. Jackson, of Barnstaple. 
Gymnosorum Series. 
1. gymnosorum (M.). This is a dwarf variety, growing about six 
inches high, and having narrow fronds, which are truncate at the 
base, multifidly lobed at the apex, and somewhat repand on the 
margin, with small uneven teeth, or occasionally inciso-lobate with 
the lobes directed forwards. The stipites are densely hair-scaly. 
The veins, and consequently the sori, lie in a very oblique direction, 
so as to form an acute angle with the costa. The sori are small, 
crowded, and almost everywhere naked, a few fragments of indusium 
only being here and there produced; the two lines of spore-cases 
forming the twin sorus are, moreover, not unfrequently quite sepa- 
rated, even when mature. The .upper surface has a finely striate 
appearance, the lines being oblique, in the direction of the veins. 
lt was found near Minehead, Somersetshire, by Mr. W. Bowden, 
and is in the possession of Mr. Wollaston. 
2. delectum (M.). This form grows about nine inches high, the 
fronds narrowish, coarsely crenate at the margin, truncately cordate 
at the base, and divided at the apex into a tuft of flat, spreading, 

