162 HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. 



Genus X. BLECHNUM, or HAED FERN". 



English botanists are not agreed "wliether this plant 

 should be considered to belong to the genus Blechmm or 

 Lomaria. We think it most nearly related to the former, 

 although in the contraction of its fertile fronds it approaches 

 very near to the latter. Among the British ferns, the one 

 species of this genus is known by having its fructification 

 extended longitudinally on the pinnte, so as to form a 

 linear or continuous sorus on each side the midvein, and 

 about midway between it and the margin. No other 

 British Fern has its fructification in extended lines lying 

 parallel with the midrib except the Pteris, or Bracken, in 

 which, however, the sorus is on the margin, and not within 

 the margin and near the midvein, as in Blechnum. The 

 Blechnum may, however, be at once known from the 

 Pteris, by the division of its fronds, which are merely 

 pinnate, while those of Pteris are decompound. 



The name Blechnum is an adaptation of the Greek 

 hlechnon, which signifies a Fern. There is but one native 

 species, for which the specific name Spicant has un- 

 questionably the right of priority over boreale, which is 



