BRITISH FERNS. 53 



THE CRESTED FERN. 



LASTR^EA CRISTATA. Presl. 



Aspidium cristatum. Smith, Hooker, Galpine, Gray, Francis, 



(not of Mackay.) 

 Polypodium cristatum. Linneus, (not of Berkenhout, Lightfoot, 



nor Hudson.) 



LOCALITIES. 



ENGLAND. . Nottinghamshire, Oxton-bogs, near Nottingham; Norfolk, among furze at Holt 



heath, and by the side of a drain on Fritton-broad. 

 WALES. ) 

 SCOTLAND. > Unknown. 

 IRELAND, j 



ALTHOUGH Lastraea cristata has occurred so very sparingly in 

 this country, it is not difficult to form an opinion of its value as 

 a species : our English plant corresponds precisely with the 

 Polypodium cristatum of Linneus, as now preserved in the Linnean 

 ^Herbarium.. There is scarcely a species which has remained 

 during a series of years so completely local. The fronds, said 

 by Smith to have been gathered on bogs amongst alder bushes, at 

 Westleton, Suffolk, by Mr. Davy, I have never seen ; and I fear 

 that some mistake has, in this instance, crept in, either as to the 

 plant, or the habitat. Mr. Smith, of Kew, has a frond labelled 

 Leicestershire, but I believe nothing more is known on the 

 subject, so that I fear to record that county as an undoubted 

 habitat of the species. I am indebted to Mr. Samuel "Woodward 

 for the loan of specimens gathered by Mr. "Wigham, on Fritton- 

 broad, Norfolk, a habitat which I think has not been previously 

 recorded ; and those from Holt-heath and Oxton-bogs I have also 

 seen and carefully compared. 



The root of Lastraea cristata is brown, short, and not firmly 

 fixed in the earth ; the rhizoma is tufted and rather chaffy : the 



