ATIIYRIUII. 121 



but all the various forms are plants of great delicacy and 

 beauty. The fronds arc of annual duration, varying in 

 size from tufts of a few inclies high, to plumy masses of 

 the heio-ht of three or four feet : and the texture is thin, 

 and almost transparent ; on which account the nature of 

 the venation, and of the connection of the parts of fructi- 

 fication, may be here very well seen and studied. The 

 genus serves to connect the A spidi urn-like and the Asple- 

 nmm-]\ke groups of Ferns, being of intermediate character. 

 It differs from the former in having the sori elongate 

 instead of round. The sori, which form short lines, are 

 sometimes curved at the end, or even horseshoe-shaped, 

 and in age, being short, and often dilated, approaching the 

 rounded form, the Lady Fern has, by many writers of 

 discrimination, been placed in the old genns Aspidiimi ; 

 but if the fructification is examined while young, imme- 

 diately before or after the indusium has burst, its true 

 character will readily be seen. "We have here an illus- 

 tration of the inconvenience which arises from the 

 preservation as herbarium specimens, only of such as have 

 the fructification quite mature ; for this, without doubt, 

 was the cause of the Lady Fern having been referred to 

 the family of Aspldium, with which it has no real 



