56 FERNS OF THE LAKE COUNTRY 



centred scales and its gland-fringed indusia. The fol- 

 lowing description applies to the more usual or typical 

 form of dilatata. 



Fronds ovate, lance-shaped in general outline, on a 

 stipes of moderate length much thickened at the base 

 and densely clothed with entire lance-shaped pointed 

 scales very dark brown in their centres but nearly 

 transparent at their margins ; bipinnate, with elongate- 

 triangular, or tapering, pinnae, placed nearly opposite, 

 and more or less obliquely, from the larger develop- 

 ment of the lower side. Pinnae pinnate, pinnules near 

 their base often so deeply divided as to be again almost 

 pinnate, the rest pinnatifid or in the upper parts merely 

 deeply serrated, but the margins, whether deeply or 

 shallowly lobed, set with teeth ending in short spinous 

 points. Venation similar to the more compound parts 

 of the allied species. Sori in great plenty, ranged in 

 double lines across the larger lobes of the pinnae or 

 along the less divided parts, and covered by kidney- 

 shaped scales or indusia fringed round their margins 

 with projecting glands. 



The typical form of L, dilatata grows nearly all 

 over the United Kingdom, from the coast-level to an 

 elevation of 3,000 feet. It prefers shady situations, 

 moist woods and glens, thickets and hedgerows. It is 

 widely dispersed through the northern hemisphere, and 

 in the Hookerian Herbarium is a specimen labelled 

 " from New Zealand." It is common everywhere 

 throughout the Lake District. 



L. dumetorum is a distinct variety of dilatata. Its 

 type may be taken from one found by Miss M. Beever, 



