FERNS. 45 



stain in the shape of a horse's shoe. This plant bears its 

 seed in a branched cluster ; like the Osmunda, it is used 

 in medicine by village doctresses, and there is a supersti- 

 tion that it will open locks, and cause horses to cast their 

 shoes. 



The Jersey Adders tongue (0. lusitanicum, Plate IV., 

 Jig. 9), differs from the common one in being smaller, 

 and having its fronds narrower, more numerous, and not 

 in a sheath. 



Thus our collection is furnished with most of the 

 members of the Polypodiacese order, characterized by 

 naked seed-masses, and including the Polypodies proper, 

 the Jersey Gymnogramma, Scaly Spleenwort, and 

 Parsley-Fern. 



The Aspidiaceae order is also well represented, all 

 its members having the seed-masses covered ; AVoodsia, 

 with its fringed covers ; Polystichum, with round covers ; 

 Lastrea, with kidney- shaped covers, attached at the 

 indentation ; Cystopteris, with its bladder-like covers ; 

 Asplenium, with its elongated covers, opening at the 

 inner edge ; Athyrium, with its kidney-shajDed covers 

 attached at the side ; Scolopendrium, with its narrow 

 covers opening in the middle ; Blechnum, with its 

 narrow covers opening along the inner side ; Pteris, with 

 its marginal line of seeds covered by the rolled-in leaflet ; 

 and Adiantum, with its crescent covers. 



The three members of the Hymenophyllaceae, or 

 Urn-bearing Ferns are in our collection — Hymeno- 

 phyllum, with naked cups ; and Trichomanes, furnished 

 with a bristle. 



