90 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



This Fern has been confounded with L. dilatata, but it is scarcely 

 possible to mistake them when the plants are alive. The bright 

 green colour of the frond, its crisp texture and concave pinnas, readily 

 distinguish it. It has also a peculiar sweet scent, which has been 

 compared to the odour of fresh hay, though I do not myself perceive 

 the resemblance. When protected from frost the fronds are truly 

 evergreen, the old ones remaining until the young ones appear in 

 May, and the fronds begin to decay at the extremity, and not near 

 the base of the rachis. The scales are fewer, narrower, and some of 

 them laciniate, with one or two large acute segments, and they are 

 destitute of the dark stripe which is so commonly found in those of 

 L. dilatata ; the lowest pair of pinnse are much larger, generally 

 longer than any of the succeeding pairs, and the frond is sprinkled 

 with round, sessile, not stalked or clavate glands ; the sori are 

 generally more abundant ; the indusia are much more convex, and 

 the spores are not muricated. 



Hay-scented Fern. 



GENUS IX.-V O L Y S T 1 H U M. Both. 



Fronds produced from the extremity of the caudex, approximate 

 and tufted, or solitary, usually coriaceous, once or more times 

 pinnate. Stipes not articulated to the caudex. Yeins all free. Sori 

 punctiform, round, at the extremity of the ultimate veins or attached 

 to some portion of their back. Indusium roundish, peltate, attached 

 by the centre : rarely the indusium is absent or fugacious. 



Name from tto\v (polu) much, and otiktos (stiktos) spotted or punctured, from the 

 numerous sori. 



SPECIES L-POLYSTICHUM LONCHITIS. Both. 



Plate 1859. 



Babenh. Crypt. Vase. Europ. Exsicc. No. 43. 



Aspidium Lonchitis, Swartz. Sm. Eng, Fl. Vol. IV. p. 284. Book. fil. Stud. Fl. p. 464. 



Hook. & Baker, Syn. Fil. ed. ii. p. 250. Milde, Fil. Europ. p. 104. Koch, Syn. 



Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 976. Fries, Summ. Veg. Scand. p. 82. Gren. & Godr. 



Fl. de Fr. Vol. III. p. 630. Babenh. 1. c. No. 43. 

 Polypodium Lonchitis, Linn. Sp. PI. 1518. Sm. Eng. Bot. ed. i. No. 797. 



Caudex rather short and thick, decumbent, not breaking into 

 separate crowns for many years. Fronds numerous, all similar, 

 arranged in shuttlecock fashion, spreading-ascending, evergreen. 

 Stipes very short, thickly clothed with large and small triangular-ovate 



