46 



Athyrium fontanum, Presl. Babington, Manual. Polypo- 

 dium fontanum, Linnaeus. 



This may be considered a rarity in England; indeed most of our 

 botanists doubt its title to admission among British species. It 

 seems to have been first noticed here by Hudson, as growing 

 "above Wybourn, in Westmoreland/' and afterwards as being 

 found on Agmondesham or Amersham church, Buckinghamshire, 

 but these localities have been since searched in vain. The herba- 

 rium of the Botanical Society of London contains specimens, pre- 

 sented by Mr. Newnham, from Cavehill, Belfast, and others col- 

 lected in 1 838, on rocks in Wharncliffe Wood, Yorkshire, by Mr. 

 Redhead : Mr. Moore mentions its having been gathered " on rocks 

 near Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, in a spot since destroyed by the 

 construction of a railway/' and likewise at Matlock, in Derbyshire. 

 As it is a not uncommon fern in rocky districts on the continent of 

 Europe, it is not unlikely that the preceding habitats may be cor- 

 rectly stated; but it has been unfortunately circumstanced, like 

 Cystopteris alpina, in being so scantily distributed as to escape the 

 observation of succeeding inquirers, or to be obliterated by the 

 march of improvement ; the latter was the case in the only instance 

 in which I ever met with it otherwise than under cultivation, viz. 

 on an old wall on Tooting Common, Surrey, where the ruthless 

 hand of repair had already commenced its destruction. The 

 Rev. W. H. Hawker found it last year " growing in some quantity 

 on a very old wall near Petersfield, in Hampshire." 



The fronds grow in a dense tuft, varying from two or three to 

 five or six inches in length ; they are smooth, of a deep green hue 

 and very rigid texture, are more or less erect and of a linear or nar- 

 row lanceolate outline: the rachis is slightly winged and leafy 

 almost to the base, the lower pinnse gradually diminishing in size 

 and becoming more distant, the upper ones being shorter and more 

 crowded as they approach the apex ; the pinnules are often decur- 

 rent, they are of an obovate form tapering below, and deeply divided 

 with from two to five sharp spinous teeth. The sori, two or three 

 generally on each pinnule, are very short, sometimes approaching 

 to circular ; their disposition is far from regular, and they often 

 become confluent. 



In cultivation this pretty fern has with many a very indifferent 

 character for endurance : in the open air it is exceedingly liable to 

 die off during the winter, unless the situation be well sheltered and 

 the drainage complete ; indeed, I have never known it to exist be- 

 yond the second year in the vicinity of London, unless when planted 

 on a fragment of an old and mouldering wall, under the shade of 

 some aged trees, but at the same time so aiTanged as to avoid their 

 drip. Under glass, in a close frame or shaded greenhouse, there 



