THE ROYAL FERN. 321 
Newman states on the authority of Mr. Buchanan, that it is collected 
in Cumberland under the name of *bog onion, and extensively 
used as a vulnerary. It also appears* that in Westmoreland and 
the adjoining part of Lancashire, where the plant is vulgarly 
known under the name of “bog onion, the caudices are held in 
high popular esteem as an external application for bruises, sprains, 
&c. The caudices are beaten, covered with “ cold spring water," 
and allowed to macerate all night, and the thick starchy fluid thus 
formed, is used to bathe the parts affected. 
Though very variable in size, this species does not present much 
variation in structure. One or two exceedingly interesting varieties, 
however, occur, especially that first mentioned below :— 
1. cristata (M.). This form is extremely handsome, and as yet 
unique. The frond before us, is two feet high excluding the stipes, 
and nearly one and a half foot broad, bluntly ovate in outline, 
bipinnate, the rachis forked, the apex multifid crisped. The pinnæ 
are developed at their apices into a large fan-shaped or spreading 
crispy tuft ; the pinnules are one and a half to two inches long, irre- 
gularly toothed with projecting lobes along their sides, and dilated 
and multifidly-lobed at the ends. The fronds present the multifid- 
crisped character in a very marked degree, and have a very beautiful 
appearance. It is in the possession of Messrs. Osborn and Sons of 
Fulham, and was accidentally purchased by them when in the 
dormant state, amongst a batch of plants obtained from a hawker. 
The wild locality is unknown. Our figure represents one of the 
moderate sized pinne, and may be taken also to represent the more 
usual size of the species itself, of which latter the figure, owing to 
our limited page, is taken from an unusually small specimen, selected 
in order to show a whole frond. [Piate CX1.] 
2. interrupta (M.). We have only seen a fragment of this form, 
communicated by Mr. Sim of Footscray. In this, the pinnules are 
mostly reduced to a roundish flabellate form, one or two here and 
there being of the usual or normal character. 
* Phytologist, v. 30. 

