. A history of British ferns. Ferns. 252 HAIDENHAIPv SPLEENWOET. however, received a marked variety from the late Mr. Samuel Gibson, of Hebden Bridge. The pinnae of this variety, instead of being nearly entire, as is usually the case, are deeply pinna- tifid, as represented in the figure in the margin, and the pinnules or lobes are irregularly den- tate. The specimens sent by Mr. Gibson are perfectly without fructification, but I do not know whether this is to be considered a cha- racter of the variety, or incidental only to the fronds I have received. The right-hand figure Mij'A^ i^ ^ fac-sim
. A history of British ferns. Ferns. 252 HAIDENHAIPv SPLEENWOET. however, received a marked variety from the late Mr. Samuel Gibson, of Hebden Bridge. The pinnae of this variety, instead of being nearly entire, as is usually the case, are deeply pinna- tifid, as represented in the figure in the margin, and the pinnules or lobes are irregularly den- tate. The specimens sent by Mr. Gibson are perfectly without fructification, but I do not know whether this is to be considered a cha- racter of the variety, or incidental only to the fronds I have received. The right-hand figure Mij'A^ i^ ^ fac-simile representation of one frond as â =^^ regards form and size ; the left-hand figm-e re-. presents a portion of a frond in which the divi- sions are still more irregular. This beautiful variety appears to have been known to our ear- liest botanists, two previous figures existing in their works ; neither of them, however, repre- sents the fronds quite so deeply divided as in the present instance. One figure is in Pluke- net's ' Phytographia ' (tab. 73, fig. 6), the plant being described in that author's ' Almagestum Botanicum' (9) as " Adiantum maritimum, segmentis rotun- dioribus:" it is stated, on the authority of Sherard, to have been found in Jersey. The second figure is in plate 315 of Tournefort's ' Institutiones Rei Herbariee; ' it is also noticed in Dillenius's edition of Bay's ' Synopsis,' and by Smith, in the ' English Flora,' where it constitutes the variety P. of Asple- nium Trichomanes. The variety y. of Smith, to which that author quotes Sir Bobert Sibbald's description, appears to have little resemblance to the variety or even species in question, if I may venture to judge from Sibbald's plate 3, fig. 4, to which Smith refers ; but as to the correctness of the reference, I am unable to speak, for Sibbald himself has, in no way that I can discover, connected the text and the figure. Mr. Gibson's plant was gathered at Kant Clough, four miles from Burnley
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