FILICES. 69 



herbaceous stripe connecting the pinnules, which are less decidedly 

 opposite than those of L. Filix-mas ; and the lobes of the pinnules have 

 a more decided mid-vein giving off branches than even var. ajffinis of 

 L. Filix-mas, though it does obtain to some extent in the more divided 

 forms of that variety ; even in these, however, the pinnules, except 

 those at the bottom of the pinnae, are narrowed at the base only on the 

 anterior side and decurrent on the posterior side. In L. remota the 

 sori are placed in a line which is much closer to the midrib of the 

 pinnules than in L. Filix-mas. The scales also are different, being 

 more varied in form on the same individual, and those at the base of 

 the stipes are broader. The indusium is smaller, thinner in texture, 

 and with the depression of the notch less marked than in Filix-mas, 

 and the edges are finely denticulate. 



From L. rigida it differs in its much longer fronds, which have the 

 basal pinnae conspicuously smaller than the succeeding ones, and all 

 of them making a much smaller angle with the rachis. The pinnules 

 are much larger, and are not to be auricled at the base, as is so 

 frequently the case with L. rigida ; and there is an absence of the 

 conspicuous glands with which the rachis scales, upper and under 

 sides of the lamina and indusia are studded. The ultimate veins are 

 more clavate at the apex than in any of the preceding species of 

 Lastrea. 



Its difference from L. spinulosa will be noticed under that species. 



Of this plant I have seen no living specimens, nor do I possess 

 dried native specimens. I have received dried cultivated specimens 

 from Windermere, from Mr. Gr. B. Wollaston, through the kindness 

 of Messrs. F. Currie and C. E. Broome ; and also from Messrs. E. 

 Sang and Sons, Kirkcaldy, who had the frond from Mr. Lowe, of 

 Nottingham. The caudex and vernation I am therefore unable to 

 describe from personal experience ; but Mr. F. Clowes writes con- 

 cerning the former, " A single crown of it, if let alone, will grow up 

 like a tree-fern, and requires support to prevent it being broken by 

 the wind." In his paper in the 2nd ser. of ' Phytologist,' 1860, 

 p. 220, of the vernation he says, " Forms side loops like spinulosa ; 

 tip not so disengaged as to form the ' shepherd's crook ' ;" and of the 

 pinnae he says, " Lower ones obliquely triangular from the greater 

 length of posterior basal pinnules ; the surface more or less twisted ' 

 upwards." Here we have two additional differences from Filix-mas 

 in which the well-known " shepherd's crook," formed by the top 

 uncurling frond, is particularly observable and forms a marked feature 

 (though it is said to be imperfectly formed in var. abbreviata), while 

 the second point is the twisting of the pinnae as in L. spinulosa and 

 L. uliginosa, so that their plane does not coincide with that of the 

 frond as a whole, which it does in Filix-mas. 



Milde says that the original discoverer of this plant, the late 

 Professor A. Braun, now (1867) considers this plant a form of Filix- 

 mas ; but Milde himself inclines to the opinion that it is a hybrid 



