60 BRITISH PERNS. 



This is one of the most compound of our native Ferns. 

 It forms a large tufted stock or stem, and has broad arched 

 fronds, which average about a couple of feet in height, 

 though it is sometimes met with smaller, and often, when 

 luxuriant, reaches a height of five feet. They are almost 

 always more or less drooping or curved, and seldom grow 

 erect, as those of cristata, uliginosa, and spinulosa do. The 

 general outline is ovate-lanceolate, though in this, one of 

 the most variable of Ferns, the form varies considerably, 

 becoming sometimes narrow elongate lanceolate on the one 

 hand, and short broad almost triangular on the other. The more 

 usual form has the fronds ovate, lance-shaped in outline, on 

 a stipes of moderate length, much thickened at the base, and 

 densely clothed with entire, lance-shaped, pointed scales, 

 which are dark brown in the centre, but nearly transparent 

 at the margins. They are bipinnate, with elongate-triangular 

 or tapering pinnae, placed nearly opposite, and having more 

 or less of obliquity from the larger development of the lower 

 side. The pinnae are pinnate, and the pinnules near their 

 base often so deeply divided as to be again almost pinnate ; 

 the rest are pinnatifid, or in the upper parts merely deeply 

 toothed; but the margins, whether deeply or shallowlylobed, 

 are set Ayith teeth which end in short spinous points. The 

 veining is very similar to the_ more compound parts of the 

 allied species : and the fructification is produced in great 

 abundance. The sori are ranged in two lines crosswise the 

 pinnae on the larger lobes, or lengthwise on the less divided 

 parts, and are covered by kidney-shaped scales or indusia, 

 which are fringed around the margin with projecting glan- 

 dular bodies. 



One of the varieties of this Fern has the fronds shorter, 

 almost triangular in outline, and often remarkably convex ; 

 it has, moreover, usually a dark green colour, often with a 

 brownish tinge. It is found in more exposed places than 

 the normal form, and is not uncommon. Another, some- 

 times called naiia, seems chiefly remarkable for its small 

 size, seldom^exceeding six or eight inches in height, which 

 peculiarity it is said to maintain under cultivation. It is 

 rather rare, or at least local in its occurrence. 



The variety collina, which has been called Lastrea collina, 

 has the fronds ovate, drawn out to a long narrow point, or 

 narrow oblong-lanceolate, and the pinnules, which are ob- 

 tusely ovate and have_a broad attachment at the base, havo 

 the serratures on their margin broader and less spinulose 

 than in the common form. It has narrow scales with a 



