LASTRF.A FII.IX-MAS. 233 



The Male Fern, or Common Buckler Fern, as it is sometimes 

 called, is one of our most common and most widely distributed 

 British species. Equally common in all the counties of England, 

 Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, the Channel Islands, the Northern 

 Islands, and Western Islands, ascending the hills in Scotland 

 to the elevation of fifteen hundred feet. 



Mr. G. B. Wollaston, of Chiselhurst, who has bestowed great 

 care and attention in the examination of this Fern, is convinced 

 that it consists of three distinct species, namely, Lastrea jilix- 

 mas, Lastrea pseudo-mas, and Lastrea propinqua, three species 

 unmistakeably distinct, an account of which he has communicated 

 to the "Phytologist," and which the Editor of that periodical, 

 printed in January of the present year. (See page 415.) 



It is true that the three species connect one another by their 

 various forms and varieties, but at the same time it is equally 

 true that the distinctive differences are also recognisable. The 

 lover of Ferns, and more especially of British Ferns, is much 

 indebted to Mr. G. B." Wollaston, for all his valuable researches 

 in this difficult field of investigation, and I think they must feel 

 bound to adopt Mr. G. B. WoUaston's views, and separate this 

 ancient family into three distinct species. With Mr. WoUaston's 

 views I entirely agree, indeed in describing Lastrea jilix-mas 

 in my "History of British and Exotic Ferns," Vol. YI, I was 

 then convinced that all the so-called varieties could not be 

 traced to the same parents, and on page 42 I described one 

 of the varieties as belonging to a distinct species. 



It requires some considerable amount of courage to make so 

 serious an alteration with regard to the British species, especially 

 when such well-known authorities as Hooker, Moore, and 

 Babington have not seen sufficient reason to make such alteration, 

 nevertheless there are many well-kno^vn authorities of the present 

 day who will hail with satisfaction an alteration that has seemed 

 deiirable, especially when so careful an observer of this branch 

 of Botany as Mr. Wollaston has adopted this course, and I 

 therefore feel less diffidence in followinsr his views. 



The following brief descriptive difference of the three species, 

 as described by Mr. Wollaston, will shew how different the three 

 forms arc: — 



