The Scottish Naturalist. 43 



KEMAEKS ON POLYPODIUM (PSEUDATHYEIUM) FLEXILE 

 AND ITS EELATION TO P. (PS.) ALPESTEE. 1 



By F. BUCHANAN WHITE, M.D., F.L.S. 



THOUGH as a Society we have hitherto entirely confined 

 our attention to the lower cryptogamic plants, which, from 

 their number and the consequent large field for research that they 

 present, are certainly deserving of all the study that can be be- 

 stowed on them ; yet that the higher cryptogams may be not 

 altogether unnoticed in our annals, and as some of us do not 

 condescend — or should I say, rise? — to the delights of lichen- 

 ology, mycology, or bryology, I have ventured to put together a 

 few notes on what I think every one will admit is, beyond doubt, 

 the most interesting of all our Scottish ferns. 



If we consult the most recent handbook of the British Flora 

 — viz., the second edition, published in 1878, of Hooker's 

 ' Student's Flora of the British Islands ' — we will find that Poly- 

 podium flexile is dismissed in very few words. Under P. alpestre 

 two varieties are given — namely : — 



"Var. 1, alpestre proper : stipes short, pinnae spreading or 

 ascending, narrow lanceolate, broadest at the base, pinnules 

 crowded. 



" Var. 2, huniile {flexile, Moore) (sp.) : stipes very short, 

 pinnae short, spreading or defiexed, pinnules rather distant," — 

 which is very nearly the same words in which Hooker and 

 Amott describe the forms in the eighth edition (i860) of their 

 'British Flora.' Not having an earlier edition of the latter 

 work, I do not know in which the description first appeared. 



Turning now to the next most recent Flora — the seventh 

 edition (1874) of Babington's 'Manual' — we find two species 

 given, P. alpestre and P. flexile ; but to the latter a query is 

 prefixed, indicating, I suppose, Babington's doubt as to its 

 being a distinct species. In the previous edition no query is 

 prefixed. The words of the description are as follows : — 



" P. alpestre — fronds lanceolate bipinnate, pinnoz narrow lan- 

 ceolate with a broad base contiguous, pinnules widest at their base, 

 acute pinnatifid with serrate lobes and branched veinlets. 



" P. flexile — fronds linear lanceolate bipinnate, pin nee ovate 

 lanceolate distant, pinnules narrow at their base, obovate bluntish 

 serrate, and with unbranched veinlets." 



1 Read at the Sixth Annual Conference of the Cryptogamic Society 

 Scotland, Glasgow, September 1880. /C\ 



