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T11K MAJiSII KKHN. 





Vernation cireinatc. 



Frond from six or eight inches to four feot in height* including the stipes, and from almit four to 

 ten inches in breadth, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, scarcely narrowed below- delicate green, mem- 

 branaceous, erect, pinnate; lateral and adherent to the caudcx ; the barren with seemingly broader leafy 

 segments the fertile with their segments apparently narrower and more acute, owing to the rolling in of 

 the margin over or towards the sori. Pimiw numerous, sub-op]>ostte or alternate, spreading, linear- 

 lanceolate, deeply pinimtilid. Segments oblong, obtuse, or sometimes acute, straight or falcate, entire 

 or slightly sinuate; the basal ones often longer than, and especially those on the anterior side quite 

 distinct from, the reek The fertile fronds differ in having the margins of their segments revolute, and 

 in being taller, with a stouter sti|»ea 



Venation of the lobes consisting of a stout midvein, llexuous in the Upper part, from which proceed 

 alternate onco or twice forked terns, the rmttlex or vcinlets running out to the margin. The veins are 

 forked very soon after leaving tlio midvein. 



FrHctifictUion on tho back of the frond, occupying the whole surface. Sori small, round, situated 

 near (lie base of the venules, I a, just above tho fork of tho vein, and forming a line on each side the 

 midvein, and about equally distant from it and the margin, though apparently marginal from the invo- 

 lution of the edge of the frond ; they arc at first distinct, but often become laterally confluent, and 

 sometimes effused over the whole of the small space between the rollcd-np margins. Indmium a small 

 delicate roundish membrane, attached posteriorly, lacerate and glandular at the tuarghh Spore-cases 

 numerous, brown, obovato. Spurns oblong or rcniform, strongly muricatc. 



Duration. The caudcx is perennial The fronds are annual, the barren ones growing up about May, 

 the fertile in July, all destroyed by the frosts of autumn. 



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Tins plant may be distinguished from the other Lastreas by its habit alone, its long, comparatively 

 slender, creeping caudcx Wing unlike that of any of the other British species ; but notwithstanding this, 

 and the fact that its fronds are really quite unlike those of L. Oreoptenx, the species has been con- 

 founded with that plant It differs from it in having a long creeping caudcx, whilst £. Orcoptcri* is 

 tutted, and merely decumbent ; in having its fronds of their full width almost to the very base, with a 

 long bare stipes, whilst £. Qreopteris has diminishing pimue carried down almost to the base of the 

 sti]>cs: and in having fronds which are almost free from glands, whilst those of />, Orcojtteris arc very 

 conspicuously resinosc-glamlular on the under surface, and very fragrant* It is still less like any others 

 of the British Lastreas. 



Laslrea Thdypterh is easily cultivated. It merely requires a light boggy kind of soil, and abundant 

 moisture. Out of doors it should therefore have a damp border, or should be placed in some wcttish 

 place about the fernery. In pots, it must have a very abundant supply of water ; and the |H*ts should 

 be large and shallow, so that its rhizome may spread naturally over the surface. Peaty soil, alone or 

 mixed with a proportion of decaying leaves and light sandy loam, will bo congenial to it It is increased 

 readily by division of tho caudcx. 



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