BLECHNUM 603 



First localized record. Common in all the sandy and poor woods and 

 pastures, plentiful in Eling Common and in Beech Wood, Mr. J. 

 Lousley in BusselVs Cat. 1839. Reading is supposed by some to take 

 its name from the great quantity of Fern growing thereabouts, 

 Lyson's Magna Britannica, 1720. Farn borough and Fernham are also 

 probably derived from Fern. 

 The Pteris is too frequent to need a detailed list of localities. 



1. Isis. Plentiful in Wytham Woods. Absent from the Oxford Clay. 



2. Ock. On Boar's Hill and Bagley Wood. Plentiful about Tubney 



and Frilford and near Faringdon. Absent from the greater 

 part of the Vale of Berkshire. 



3. Pang. Plentiful on the commons and heaths of the district, 



absent from the bare chalk. 



4. Kennet. Particularly abundant on the heathy portion of the 



Bagshot Sands and on the Brick earth, &c., as Snelsmore, 

 Wickham, Aldermaston. Mortimer, Burghfield, Inkpen, Green- 

 ham, &c. 



5. Loddon. Abundant about Bearwood, Wokingham, Sandhurst, 



and generally on the Bagshot Sands. Plentiful in Windsor 

 Park, on Stubbing's Heath and Cookham Dean. 

 In dry poor soil, as at Snelsmore, &c., the secondary pinnules instead 

 of being deeply pinnatifid are sometimes nearly entire ; this is the var. 

 iNTEGERRiMA, Moore, Nat. Pr. Brit. Ferns, ii. 242. Seedling plants are 

 occasionally found in brickwoi-k near streams ; in these the fronds are 

 much thinner in texture. 



Pteris is found in all the bordering counties. 



BLECHNUM, Linn. Gen. ed. 5, 485 (1754). 

 Lomaria, Willd. in Berl. Mag. iii. (1800) 160. 



B. Spicant, With. Bot. Arr. ed. 3, iii. 765 (1796), Roth, Cat. fasc. i. 132 

 (1797). B. boreale, Swartz in Schrad. Journ. ii. (1800) 75. Osmunda 

 Spicant, Linn. Sp. PI. 1066 (1753). Lonchitis aspera, Gerard, 978. 

 L. Spicant, Desv. in Berl. Mag. Ges. Nat. Freunde, v. (181 1) 325. 



Top. Bot. 520. Syme, E. B. xii. 143, t. 1885. Nyman, 862. Fl. Oxf. 357. 



Native. Ericetal. Woods and heaths, especially on the ditch-sides in 

 the more shady heaths of the south-western part of the county, 

 where it is not uncommon and widely distributed. It appears to 

 dislike calcareous soils. P. July- August. 



First record. Lonchitis. It grows in Chilsey woods by the side of 

 a hill where springs fall, MS. in Byte's Herball, 1660. 



1. Isis. Wytham, very rare. 



2. Ock. Childswell Hill, MS. in Lyte. Bagley Wood, Baxt. Stirpes. 



Crypt. Ox. No. 2, 1825. Near Tubney, Walker. Shadwell Copse. 

 Rare in this district. 



