CRYPTOGAMIA— FILICES. Pteris. 317 



Struthiopteris. Cord. Hist. 170. 2./. 



S.n. 1687. Hall. Hist. V. 3. 6. 



Lonchitis aspera. Raii Syn. \\S. Ger. Em. 1140./. 



L. aspera minor. Matth. Valgr.v.2.27A.f. Camer. Epit. GG^.f. 



L. altera, folio polvpodii. Bauh. Hist. v. 3. p. 2. 730./. 737. 



L. vulgatior, folio vario. Moris, v. 3. 569. sect. 14. t. 2./ 23. 



Asplenon sylvestre. Trag. Hist. 550./. Dalech. Hist. 121 6./. 



In rough heathy or stony ground, or in moist shady hedge bottoms. 



Perennial. July. 



Root black and scaly, tufted, with many stout fibres. Fronds 

 numerous, tufted, s'talked, erect, straight, lanceolate, tai)ering 

 at each end, smooth, deep green, a foot or more in height ; 

 the barren ones of numerous, close, parallel, lanceolate, entire, 

 single-ribbed lea/lets, bluntish with a minute point, their base 

 scarcely at all dilated, or auricled ; fertile ones interior, or cen- 

 tral, not quite so numerous, but taller, of much narrower, 

 rather more distant, more acute leci/leis, dilated at the base. 

 Masses in continuous, solitary, lines, close to each partial 

 midrib, at each side. Cover at a small distance from the mar- 

 gin, uninterrupted, linear, wavy, separating after a while at 

 the side ne.xt the rib, and disclosing the innumerable crowded 

 brown capsules, each bound with a jointed ring. 



Haller justly observed this could be no Oimunda. It is wonderful 

 Linn^us,' who founded the very natural well-marked genus 

 Blechnum, never discovered that this Fern belonged to it ; a fact 

 first published in the Turin Memoirs above quoted. 



409. PTERIS. Female-fern, or Brakes. 



Linn. Gen.-rjO. Juss. 15. Fl. Br. 1130. Act. Taurin. r.5.412. 



Tracts2\\. Sw.Syn.Fd.94. jnild.Sp.PLv.o.SDi). Lam.t.SGO. 



Spreng. Cnipt.f. 20. 

 Filix. Hall. Hist. v. 3. 7. 



Nat. Ord. see ?i. 4-63. 



Masses oi^ caps7des linear, uinnterrupted, parallel to, and 

 near, tlie margin, at the back of each segment ot the 

 icYiWc Jronds. Cover IVoni the indexed margin ot the 

 frond, membranous, continuous, uninterrupted, wavy, 

 sometimes fringed, separating at its inner cil^c, towards 

 the rib. Capsules numerous, stalketl, globose, ot 2 

 valves, bound by a transverse jointed ring. Seeds nu- 

 merous, minute, slightly angular. 



Boot son^ewbat creeping. J'h^fids erect, mostly compound ; 

 in some foreign sjiecies siuijily pinnate ; in a lew undi- 

 vided ; .segments of the barren ones broadest, and often 

 crenate. In our fust and most common species a men)- 



