FERN TRIBE 125 
stances more branched, and acquiring a deeper green hue. Several species 
of Lastréa grow upright, or nearly so, but the fronds of this fern fall into 
graceful arch-like forms. The outline of a well-grown and luxuriant frond 
is egg-shaped and lanceolate, varying to a narrow lanceolate figure, and in 
young or half-starved specimens becoming short and broadly triangular. 
The stalk, which is much thicker at the base than in the upper part, is 
clothed with long pointed scales, which are in the middle of dark brown 
colour, but are clear and paler at the margins. The twice-pinnate frond has 
narrow pinne ; the pinnules at their base being often so deeply divided as to 
be again pinnate ; while the others are pinnatifid, except at the upper parts, 
where they are merely toothed. The margins of all are serrated and spinous. 
The mode of veining is similar to that of L. spinuldsa, and the fronds pro- 
duce a large number of clusters of fructification, which, at first sight, seem 
to be irregularly scattered. They do not lie in such precise rows as on some 
other species, but they form two lines crosswise to the pinne on the larger 
lobes, and lengthwise on the less divided portions. The indusia are more or 
less fringed at the edges with stalked glands. 
The short triangular form of this fern is not uncommon on exposed 
places ; it is generally of a darker green, often tinged with brown, and the 
fronds are convex, or even drooping. A variety (collina) found on the hills 
of Westmoreland, Yorkshire, and Lancashire, differs so much from the 
ordinary condition that some writers describe it as a distinct species. The 
frond is egg-shaped, very long, and tapering; the pinnules egg-shaped, 
blunt, and with a broad attachment at the base. They are serrated and 
spiny, though less so than in the ordinary condition of the plant. In 
another form the surface of the frond is covered with glands, and the scales 
of the stipes are broader. 
This Broad Prickly-toothed Fern is a very common plant throughout the 
kingdom. Its rhizome is often conspicuous above the ground, as it does not 
creep nor send out branches, but becomes a strong firm base, rising erect like 
a stem, sometimes half a foot above the surface of the ground. This fern is 
found mostly on wooded or bushy spots, where it is sheltered from the strong 
sunlight :— 
‘*The feathery fern! the feathery fern! 
It groweth wild, and it groweth free, 
By the rippling brook, and the wimpling burn, 
And the tall and stately forest tree ; 
Where the merle and the mavis sweetly sing, 
And the blue jay makes the woods to ring, 
And the pheasant flies on whirring wing, 
Beneath a verdurous canopy. 
‘‘The feathery fern! the feathery fern ! 
An emerald sea it waveth wide, 
And seems to flash, and gleam, and burn, 
Like the gentle flow of a golden tide ; 
On bushy slope or in leafy glade, 
Amid the twilight depth of shade, 
By interlacing branches made, 
And trunks with lichens glorified.” 
There are numerous natural varieties of this fern. 
