460 OSMUNDA REGALIS. 



Norfolk, Cambridge, Warwick, Monmouth, Hereford, Worcester, 

 Salop, Nottingham, (now, I fear, extinct,) Cheshire, Lancaster, 

 York, Durham, Northumberland, Westmorland, Cumberland, 

 (ilamorgan, Pembroke, Merioneth, Flint, Carnarvon, Isles of 

 Anglcsea, Purbcck, and Wight. In Scotland in Dumfries, 

 Kircudbright, Lanark, Kincardine, Perth, Forfar, Aberdeen, 

 Argyle, Dumbarton, Sutherland, Islands of Arran, Bute, Midi, 

 Islay, Uist, Harris, Lewis, and Shetland. In Ireland, Donegal, 

 Galway, Dublin, King's County, Wicklow, Cork, Kerry, 

 Waterford, Clare. Also in Jersey. 



Abroad a native of Denmark, Russia, Sweden, Gothland, 

 Holland, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Germany, 

 Hungary, Portugal, Turkey, Croatia, Transylvania, India, 

 Azores, Algeria, Natal, Madagascar, Newfoundland, Canada, 

 United States, Mexico, and Brazil. 



This Fern grows erect and trunk -like, with a stipes half the 

 length of the frond, smooth and pale green (except when young.) 



Fronds more or less erect, varying in length from two to 

 twelve feet, and bright yellow green in colour; membranaceous. 

 Bipinnate to tripinnate, broadly lanceolate in form. The 

 fronds are part sterile, and 2^^i't have a terminal fertile 

 panicle. Sterile pinnse sub-opposite, ovate-lanceolate, and 

 distant. Pinnules from an inch to two inches and a half long, 

 sessile, oblong-ovate, with a somewhat widened base, occasionally 

 auricled or deeply lobed. 



A'eins forked near the base. 



Fructification. The whole or a portion of the uj^pcr pinnae 

 transformed into a bipinnate, contracted, inflorescent panicle. 

 Spore-cases crowded on the margin. 



At Santander, in the north of Sj^ain, in 1860, I saw numerous 

 dwarf plants in the crevices of low rocks by the sea side, where 

 they would be frequently washed by sea waves, 



A dozen years ago three plants alone remained in the fields 

 of Mr. C. Allcock, at Bui well, Nottinghamshire. They were 

 evidently dying from being too dry, as the land had been drained. 

 I brought one to Highfield House, and it has become a large 

 plant bearing fronds six feet in length. The others, in their 

 native habitat, lingered for a couple of years and then died. 



It would be a difficult matter to find a more graceful and 

 elegant plant than the Osmunda regalis when grown on the 



