198 HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. 



the two in some parts of Scotland and in Ireland. It is 

 widely distributed in other parts of the world. 



Genus XVII. OSMU]S"DA, Linnwus. 



The Osnmnda is called the Royal Fern, and well it 

 deserves the regal honours, for it is the most majestic of 

 our indigenous Ferns. It is known by its large size, by 

 having its fronds entirely leafy in the lower part, and 

 entirely fertile at the top, the pinnae or branches at the 

 apex of the fronds being changed from the ordinary leafy 

 form into dense masses of spore-cases, arranged in the 

 aggregate in the same way as the leafy pinnules would 

 have been. This mode of bearing the fructification renders 

 it so strikingly obvious at first sight, and gives the plant 

 an aspect so entirely different from that of those in which 

 the fructification is more or less concealed by its position 

 on the under-surface, that the Osmunda, though one of 

 what are classified as flowerless plants, is often anomalously 

 called the Flowering Fern. In truth, the contracted 

 chocolate-coloured apex looks not unlike a dense panicle of 



