68 JOHN GOODYER 



the multitude. If you looke on these Femes accordinge 

 to their seuerall growthes and ages, you ma}' make many 

 more sorts of them than I have done ; which I am afraid 

 hath beene the occasion of describinge more sorts than 

 indeed there are in nature. These descriptions I made by 

 them when they were in their perfect growthes ' (cf. 

 P- i8i). 



His No. I ' Filix mas ramosa pinnuHs dentatis' is the 

 earliest reference to the Broad Shield-fern {Aspidium dila- 

 tahnii). 



'This groweth plentifully in the boggie shadowie moores neare 

 Durford Abbey in Sussex, and also on the moist shadowie rocks 

 by Mapledurham in Hampsheire . . . and I have found it often on 

 the dead putrified bodies and stemms of old rotten okes, in the said 

 moores, neare the old plants I have observed verie manie small 

 yonge plants growinge, which came by the fallinge of the seed 

 from those dusty scales : for I believe all herbes have seeds in 

 themselves to produce their kindes, Gen. i. ii and 12.' 



His second species was the Male Shield-fern {Aspidium 

 Filix mas). ' This grows plentifully in most places in 

 shadowie woods and copses.' It had not been previously 

 recorded for Hampshire. The variety Aspidium Filix 

 7}tas var. affinis, was noted ' in many places in the shade '. 

 The Prickly Shield-fern (Polys He hum lobatum) or the allied 

 Angular Shield-fern {P. aiigtUare) was also abundant ' on 

 the shadowie moist rockes by Mapledurham neare Peters- 

 feld in Hampsheire'. 



The Marsh Shield-fern [Aspidium Thelypteris Sw.) is 

 probably the species described under the name ' Dryo- 

 pteris Penae et Lobelii ' on 6 July ; if so, Goodyer's is the 

 earliest British record of it. 



' Manie yercs past I found this feme in a verie wctt more or 

 bogge beinge the land of Richard Austen called Whitrowe moore, 

 where Peate is now digged, a mile from Petersfeld in Hampsheire, 

 and this sixt of July 1633 I digged there manie plants, and by 

 them made this description. I never found it growinge in anie 

 other place.' 



The descriptions of these Ferns were almost certainly 



