FERAS. 239> 



and bright green colour of the frond. One form of Lady P'ern very 

 narrow in outline, pinnae very distant, and pinnules almost folded 

 together, is known as Skeleton Fern, and this last name is very well 

 suited to the starved aspect of the plant. While one of the Beech 

 Ferns* has obtained the singular name of Mendicant Fern, from 

 the deflexed lower pair of pinnae, which have a sort of supplicating look. 

 The elegant Adiautuin pedatum^ is known everywhere in this district as 

 Fairv Fernf ; nor can we reasonably object to common names by which 

 our plants may be recognized by common people, who would only 

 provoke a smile were they to call them by their scientific names, the 

 meanmg of which they could not comprehend nor even pronounce 

 properly. 



The fruit dots of the Evergreen Wood Fern may be perceived on 

 the back of the pinnules as soon as the frond unrolls ; at this early 

 period they have a whitish look, and the kidney form -is easily distin- 

 guished. In July the colour deepens, the indusia shrivel and the ripened 

 sori give a rich brown look to the back of the frond ; in August the 

 spores begin to be shed abroad. 



What a world of wonders does the magnifying glass reveal to our 

 eyes if we examine the fruit dots through it. Truly those who never 

 look within the book of Nature, lose a thousand pleasures that they 

 never dream of, in their eager pursuit after worldly amusements. Even 

 the fine transparent pointed hairs that terminate the toothed divisions of 

 the pinnules are most beautiful to look upon ; the fine veinings and the 

 scales that clothe the root and stipe of the frond, are worth our closest 

 attention and admiration. Very closely allied to A. spimdosum var. 

 interiiiediitm is the 



Broad Shield Fern — Aspiduiiu spimilosinn, (Swz.), var. dilatatuni, 



(Horneman). 



This differs from the preceding by its more triangular outline, the 

 oblong divisions of the pinnae, the more leathery texture and yellower 

 green of the pinnules and the paler, smaller, fruit dots, which are very 

 abundant on the full-sized fruitful fronds. Where this fern is found, 

 in exposed situations, the colour is a very yellow green, rusty on the 

 stipes, and the pinnules contracted, so as to appear concave beneath. 

 The rachis is thickened and a little swollen at the base of the mid-ribs 

 of the pinnae. These differences evidently are caused by soil, and more 

 sunny exposure, from which all our wood-loving ferns seem instinctively 

 to shrink, nor do they long continue in situations so uncongenial to their 



* Phcgopteris hexagonoptera. 



] These are merely local names not widely known. 



