780 



ance, but exhibit the adnate attachment of the pinnules very conspi- 

 cuously. 



Barren Frond. The earlier fronds of the season, together with 

 some of the later ones rising from the lateral crowns, are perfectly 

 without fructification : they are shorter and broader, and the pinnae 

 are longer, broader, and more crowded than in the normal fertile 

 fronds. The marked difference and permanent distinctness between 

 the fertile and barren fronds is a character common to Lastrea The- 

 lypteris, L. cristata and Allosorus crispus, but does not obtain in the 

 generality of species, all the fronds having, in a very great majority 

 of instances, a tendency to produce fructification, although adventi- 

 tious cii'cumstances of situation, temperature, soil, &c, may cause an 

 increase or diminution of the quantity of seed produced. 



Affinities to La&trea cristata and L. spinosa. It resembles cristata 

 in vernation and adnate pinnules : it resembles spinosa in the figure, 

 notching and aristation of the pinnules : it resembles both in its erect, 

 rigid habit, and ovate, diaphanous, concolorous scales, and also in its 

 entire, eglandulose involucre. 



Diagnosis. It differs from L. cristata in the more acuminate, 

 more divided, more serrated, more aristate pinnules, also in the more 

 direct course of the veins, a difference much more easily observed 

 than described : it differs from L. spinosa in the adnate, decurrent 

 pinnules, in the tufted rhizoma and consequent regular habit of 

 growth, and in the simple vernation : it differs from both these species 

 in the more equal distribution of the clusters of capsules over all parts 

 of the frond. 



Habitat. This fern occurs only in wet, marshy situations, or on 

 moist heaths. Wybunbury bogs, Cheshire : Oxton bogs, Nottingham- 

 shire: Bawsey Heath, Norfolk. 



Cultivation. It grows freely in cultivation, retaining all the cha- 

 racters which distinguish it as a wild plant : in the spring it is twenty 

 days later than L. multiflora in expanding, ten days later than L. spi- 

 nosa, and ten to fifteen days earlier than L. cristata. 



In offering these observations to the notice of British botanists, \ 

 am perfectly aware that I lay myself open to the charge of species- 

 making. I hope, however, that the candour of my readers generally 

 will appreciate the attempt more justly : they will perhaps bear in 

 mind that I have not hitherto been guilty of adding a single specific 

 name to our list of British ferns. 



Edward Newman. 



London, September 27, 1849. 



