THE HAY-SCENTED BUCKLER FERN, 



TRIANGULAR PRICKLY-TOOTHED, OR CONCAVE. 

 Lastrea cemula. BBACKKNRIDGE. 



The Hay-scented Fern is a plant of from a foot to 

 two feet in height, growing in a circle of triangular 

 arched or drooping fronds with a crisped appearance, 

 from the turning back of the margins of all the seg- 

 ments. Its fragrance is like that of new hay, like hay, 

 too, more powerful as it dries, and lasting for a long 

 time. Its stipes is of about the same length as the 

 leafy portion of the frond, clothed with jagged pale 

 brown scales. The fronds are bipinnate, the lowest 

 pair of pinnse being always longer and larger than the 

 rest, and the pinnules on the inferior side of the pinnae 

 always larger than those on the superior. The pin- 

 nules are oblong-ovate, the lowest often again divided 

 into a series of oblong lobes, mostly decurrent, but 

 sometimes slightly stalked, the margin cut into short 

 spinous-pointed teeth. The veins of the pinnules 

 alternately branch from a sinuous mid vein, and divide 

 again into two or three alternate venules, the lowest 

 anterior venule bearing a sorus, the exact ramification 

 of the veins depending on the degree in which the 

 pinnules or lobes are divided. The son are spread 

 over the whole surface, in two tolerably even lines 



