228 THE BRITISH FERNS. 
growth, being ramose, and to some extent interrupted in the deve- 
lopment of the lobes. The obvious peculiarity of this variety is 
the development of the extremities either of the frond or of the 
segments, into a broader and more dilated form than the parts 
beneath them. The plant has a tendency to throw up semi-fertile 
fronds, the lobes of which are sometimes bifid, and sharply serrated. 
It was found in 1853, near Tunbridge Wells, by Mr. Wollaston. 
33. multifurcatum (M.). This is a handsome and vigorous variety, 
very irregular in its form, but quite constant to its peculiarities. 
These peculiarities consist, (1), in the occasional branching of the 
fronds once or twice near the base; and (2), in the apices of the 
fronds which are not so branched, as well as the branches of the 
former, being many times forked near the apex so as to form a. 
moderate sized flat tuft. The segments resulting from these apical 
furcations are quite irregular in form and size, but they spread out, 
and are most of them extended into a lengthened acute point, of 
which the margins are irregularly notched, producing a somewhat 
ragged appearance. The fronds are about six to eight inches long, 
tapered below, and sometimes producing a pair of lateral branches 
at the base as in trinervium (24) ; the segments are often of unequal 
length, broadish, acute. The fertile fronds are unknown to us. It 
was found in 1853, in a hedge-bank near Penryn, Cornwall, by Mr. 
F. Symons, and was communicated by Mr. G. Dawson. Mr. 
Stansfield states that he has found the same varlety near Over 
Darwen, Lancashire. [Plate XCVII B.—Folio ed. t. XLIII C, 
fig. 3.] 
34. ramosum (Kin.). This variety, which is exactly analogous to 
Scolopendrium vulgare, var. ramosum, is one of the most beautiful 
yet discovered. The rachis (or, very rarely the stipes) both of the 
fertile and barren fronds divides dichotomously into a series of 
crowded branches and branchlets, the apices of which are beauti- 
fully curled forming dense blunt-ended tufts. The variety has been 
found in Ireland, near Upper Lough Bray, in Wicklow, by Dr. 
Kinahan; and between Ashleagh and Eriffe, in Mayo, by Captain 
Morton Eden; also in England in Furness Fells, Windermere, 
Westmoreland, by Mr. J. Huddart: the three plants differing very 
slightly. [Plate XCVI A.] 

