716 



to find Pseudatliyiiura alpestre in all thecorries of the Dee-side moun- 

 tains, and those of the neighbouring districts. It was often mixed 

 with Athyrium Filix-foemina, at an elevation of from 2000 to 3000 

 feet ; but from 3000 to 4000 feet A. Filix-foemina had ceased, and Ps 

 alpestre was plentiful. In damp gorges, and among tumbled rocks, 

 it was often destitute of fructification ; but in more open places it was 

 abundantly in fructification, varying from six inches to three feet four 

 inches in height. A remarkable variety, with deflexed pinnae, was 

 only met with in one place in Glen Prosen." 



GymnogrammOi leptophylla. 



" I am not acquainted with Gyranogramma leptophylla ; but, if it 

 resemble any of the forms of P. alpestre, I should give the lady who 

 thought she found the former at Braemar credit for having gathered 

 it in the corrie of Loch-na-gar, or some such place, and confounded 

 it with small A. Filix-foemina, which grows in the place she has 

 pointed out, along with Cystopteris fragilis and a few other commoner 

 ferns. Careful investigation of her locality for it did not, however, 

 turn up a single specimen of Gymnogramma. As localities of Poly- 

 podium alpestre the following may be given : — Can-lochen Glen, 

 Glens Prosen, Dole, Phiadh, Callater, and Canndin, Ben-na-muich- 

 dhui, Loch Aan, Cairn Toul, Ben-y-Glo, Loch-na-gar, and Dhu Loch.'* 



Cystopteris Dickieana. 



" When in Scotland, I visited the cave at Cove, near Aberdeen, in 

 which Cystopteris Dickieana is found. It is a cave of considerable 

 dimensions, into which the sea washes in high tides, and in gneiss ? 

 rock. The upper portion is rather wet, and much covered with Mar- 

 chantia, from amongst which the Cystopteris, as well as Aspleniura 

 marinum and Athyrium Filix-foemina, grow. The Cystopteris is ge- 

 nerally without fructification, and in the cave the Athyrium is univer- 

 sally so, and requires great care to distinguish it. On a ledge outside, 

 very difficult of access, the Athyrium is in fructification. As Asple- 

 niura marinum becomes sometimes divided when it recedes from the 

 coast, as at Warrington, and the allied Asplenium obtusatum of the 

 southern hemisphere becomes, in the interior of Norfolk Island, A. 

 diversifolium, sometimes divided to filiform shreds, witli the fructifi- 

 cation marginal, because the narrowness of the segments allows no 

 other place for it, may not Cystopteris fragilis on the coast, in a wet 

 cave, have its fronds altered into C. Dickieana ? If so, the latter is 

 nevertheless a striking and beautiful form. I have it in cultivation, 

 fio may see if it change." 



