THE MALE FBKX. 



additional generic names, with frivolous distinctions, to the perplexity of amateur, ami the dissatisfaction 

 of professional tatanista. 



The generic name Jfryopttris WAS suggested by Schott for the Male Fern in 1834 ; and there is no 

 doubt that tins is also the Dn/optcrts of Adanson. The botanical name-reformers of the beginning of 

 the present century would have done well to have availed themselves of this name ; but it is surely not 

 binding on us now to revert to such antiquities. It has, however, been adopted for the whole group by 

 Dr. Asa Gray. Of the two names applied to these plants which have thus been supi>ortcd by modem 

 botanical authority, we select that of iMstrta, which has been most widely adopted, and as avoiding 

 much needless change. The old name of Aspidium, which some retain, and with which Roth's 

 Polystichnm is nearly equivalent and coeval, seems more properly applied to species having peltate 

 indusia, as is suggested by Swnrtz himself, who uses the terms peltate and mnbilicate, before those of 

 reniform and dimidiate, all however being included by him. These several names were judiciously 

 distributed twenty years since — Aspidium to the liettcd-vcined peltate Aspidiese ; Potystichum U> tho 

 frcc-vcincd |>eUate Aspfdtott ; and Laatrea to the free-veined reniform Aspidieie ; and no further 

 change, at least for the British species, is now required. 



When tho species of Lastrm and Pohjvt&hum were included under Aspidium they bore the English 

 name of Shield Fern. It is however objectionable to use the same English name for different genera^ 

 and as the old name of Shield Fern is more properly applied to the Po!tt$tichnitu* t which are the most 

 genuine Aspidia, we have proposed in the Itmtdhouk of Itritljh Fcrm 3 to use for the Lastrca*, the 

 equivalent name of Itucklcr Fern, which is here also adopted. 



The common Male Fern cannot well be mistaken for any other native species. It has been formerly 

 confounded with L, cmUtta, but the two have no very close affinity, and tho only resemblance occurs in 

 a form of Fitix-mas t not common, in which the lower pinmu are triangular. The Incised variety is in 

 some respects like L. rigida, but obviously different in many others. 



The Incised Male Fern— L. Fiux-mas incisa— (Plate XV,) is altogether a larger and more striking 

 plant than the normal form, more robust, averaging three or four feet, and sometimes reaching six feet 

 in height, with a stipes of five or six inches. The bonds in unfolding liberate the point, which becomes 

 bent like the curve of a shepherd's crook, as in the common plant; they arc distinctly bipinuato, 

 lanceolate, not contracting abruptly near the apex. The pinna* are elongate, tapering gradually to the 

 ajiox. The pinnules are somewhat less closely placed; the basal ones notched, often deeply, on each 

 side their base, thus having a narrow attachment, clongately pyramidate-oblong, broadest at the base, 

 and with a narrowed though rounded apex ; the rest inoro broadly attached, and more equal iu width ; 

 the margins more or less deeply uicisodobato, the lobes three to live-toothed. The venation is more 

 highly developed, thus : a vein is directed up the centre of each lobe, and this bears alternately 

 sovend venules ; but the son are, notwithstanding, produced only on the anterior basal venule of 

 each fascicle, so that, 09 in the normal form, they are ranged in a single line on each side the midvein, 

 commonly extending, however, much nearer to the apex of the pinnule. The indusium is here reniform 

 as in the other, convex, entire, and persistent. The irregularly deformed monstrous leafy 

 developments of this variety constitute the Aspidium de/ntstum of Schkuhr. This variety is probably 

 equally common with the type form, and appears as widely dispersed ; it is certainly found in tho 

 south and south-western, the midland and the northern counties of England ; in Wales; in the east 

 and south-west of Scotland ; in the Channel Isles ; and about Kingstown, Dublin, Ireland, whence it has 

 been sent to us by R. Harrington, Esq, Our figure necessarily represents a small and therefore less 

 characteristic specimen. 



The Dwarf Male Fern — L. Fiux-ius puuila- — (Plate XVII.) is permanently smaller, and less 

 developed than the normal plant It usually grows from nine inches to afoot in height* and rarely, 

 when very vigorous, reaches tho height of a foot and a half The stipes is two to three inches long, the 

 fronds lanceolate, pinnate; the pinnfe short, bhmtish, and pinnatiiul, rarely pinnate; the pinnules or 



