70 POLYSTICHUM LONCHITIS. 



Found only in tlie fissures of rocks near the summits of 

 the highest and bleakest mountains of England, Scotland, 

 Ireland, and Wales. It is a native of Lapland, Iceland, 

 Sweden, Denmark, and Russia in the north, extending throughout 

 Europe, being foTind in France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, 

 Germany, Hungary, and Greece. Found also in Xorth America, 

 Kamtschatka, Asia Minor, Kashmir, and on the Altai Mountains. 



The mountain traveller occasionally meets with this plant, 

 often in places difficult of access, and, even where accessible, 

 frequently most difficult to be removed from its native wilds, 

 and still more difficult to cultivate, when obtained under the 

 most advantageous circumstances, as indeed are many other 

 mountain plants. The difference of the pressure of the 

 atmosphere between the sea level and several thousand feet 

 above the sea, is alone an important matter of consideration, 

 and one that cannot be overcome. We may imitate nature 

 very closely in regard to soil, rocky situation, moisture, and 

 temperature, but we cannot remove the extra pressure of the 

 air upon the plant; and this sooner or later, I fear, is 

 sufficient in most instances to destroy its vitality. It is seldom 

 that a specimen is seen flourishing under cultivation. 



As a British plant it is found on the mountains at Settle, 

 Attermire Scar, and Ingleborough, Yorkshire; and on the Falcon 

 Glints, Teesdale, in Durham. In Wales on the mountains 

 above LI anberis, at Glyder-vawr, and on Snowdon, (below 

 Crib-y-Destilh. In Scotland it is more spread, being a native 

 of Sutherland, Ross, Inverness, Moray, Aberdeen, Forfar, Perth, 

 Argyle, and Dumbarton, the chief stations being Ben More, 

 in Sutherlandshire, Ben Lawers and Craig Challiach, in 

 Perthshire, the Clova Mountains, Glen Fiadh, and Craig Maid, 

 in Forfarshire: it has been said also to *be an inhabitant of 

 the Orkney Islands. In Ireland this Fern diflfers considerably 

 in its form: it is found on the Rosses and Thanet Passes, in 

 the county of Donegal, on the Ben Bulben Mountains, in the 

 county of Sligo, and on Brandon Hill, in the county of Kerry. 



The bleak, cold, exposed situations in which PolysticJmm 

 lonchitis grows proclaim this Fern to be the most hardy of 

 the British species. Its fronds are exceedingly rigid, and well 

 calculated to resist the blast of those exposed mountains on 

 which it luxuriates. It is an evergreen species. 



