Handbook of British Ferns (2 ed. 124), on two fronds gathered by
tho late Miss Bower, near Tunbridge Wells. We have subsequently
seen a somewhat similar form, scarcely identical, from Hartland,
Devon, whore it was found hy Mrs. Chanter in company with
Chanteriæ.
9. alpina (M.). This is an elegant form, remarkable for its delicate
texture, much more delicate and membranaceous than in any other
form of the spooios we have seen. The fronds seem to be normally
oblong, that is, nearly straight-sided with the point tapered off, such
as occurs in the typical state of spinulosa; but some of our specimens
are ovato, or even broadly ovate, probably resulting from differences
of age, or of the conditions under which they were grown. The fronds
are almost or quite tripinnate below, hipinnate upwards. The pinnæ
are ascending, membranaceous in texture, obliquely deltoid or ovate
below, ovate-lanoeolate, and nearly equal above ; the lowest pinnæ
are very unequal sided, and in the oblong, or as we regard them
typical fronds, very little shorter than several of the succeeding
pairs ; hut tho rest, above the second pair, are very slightly unequal.
The pinnules are rather ovate, or elongate-ovate, according to
their position, the lowermost ones almost or quite cut up into ovate-
oblong pinnulets, which are lobed, the lobes serrate ; the smaller
ones aro deeply pinnatifid with mucronato acute serratures. The sori
are large numerous, placed near the base of the sinuses, and so
forming generally two lines along tho pinnules ; they are furnished
with small fugacious indusia having a ragged somewhat glandular
margin. The scales are broad lance-shaped entire, sometimes whole-
coloured palish-brown, sometimes, and apparently most commonly,
pale brown with a dark central mark varying in intensity. This
form occurs plentifully among rooks on the higher parts of Bon
Lawers, Perthshire, where it first attracted our notice. I t occurs
also in—Aberdeenshire : Glen Callater, Braemar, A . Croall ; Looh-
na-gar (a dwarfed and depauperated form), TT. Sutherland. Westmoreland
: Hawes Water, F. Clowes. Yorkshire: Ingleborough,
plentiful on the N. E. side, T. Blezard. Lancashire : near Shooter’s-
Spring, Salter-fell, Roeburndale, near Lancaster, T. B. A very
dwarf form with ovate fronds, found by Dr. Balfour on Ben Voirlioh
in Perthshire (as montana), and which docs not well associate
with any other form, is probably a small state of the var. alpina; as
also, a similar dwarf form, found on Looh-na-gar in Aberdeenshire
hy Mr. W. Sutherland.
10. nana (Newm.). This form proves to he a permanent variety,
and not an immature condition of tho species, as might he supposed.
I t differs most obviously from the usual and commoner forms of the
species in its constantly smaller size ; the extreme length of the
fronds, including the stipites, varying from two to four inobes in the
smallest forms, to eight or ten inches or a foot in the largest forms
of the variety. This small size and dwarfness is a permanent
characteristic, the variety having been observed for the last twenty
years, hy Mr. J. Tatham, growing near Settle, in Yorkshire, without
change, and in company with the ordinary forms of the species three
feet in height ; and even when freely manured, these plants though
attaining about fifteen inches high, did not lose the dwarfish aspect of
the natural specimens. The Eev. J. M. Chanter has also observed
the same fact of constancy for a series of years in plants which we
think belong to this variety, ocourring near Ilfraoomhe, in Devonshire
; and cultivation in a greenhouse was not found to add to the
size of the Devonshiro plants, which assume slight variations of form
among themselves. The Settle plant is the typical form of the
variety. The fronds of this are ovate broadest at the base, or oblong-
ovate, bipinnate. The stipites and raohides, as well as the under side
of the veins, are sparingly clothed with short-stalked glands ; and the
stipes moreover, which forms nearly half the entire height, is clothed
thickly at the base, more sparingly upwards, with lanceolate scales
having the usual dark central mark. The pinnæ are spreading and
somewhat acuminate, the lowest pair unequal-sided, hut the rest
nearly equal. The basal pinnules are distinctly stalked, the next
decurrontly stalked, and the upper ones adnate, somewhat convex,
the larger ones deeply, the rest shallowly lobed, the lobes being
serrated ; the smaller ones are merely serrate ; the teeth all acute
and muoronate. The sori are often most copious in the upper part
though frequently occupying tho whole of the frond, and form a line
on each side the midvem of the pinnules nearer the rib than the
margin ; they aro rather small, and are each covered by a delicate,
somewhat glandular-margined indusium, which soon shrivels and
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