522 Alexander Goodman More Scientific Papers. 



FERNS. 



So general an interest has lately been taken in the study and culti- 

 vation of these elegant plants, that at the risk of repetition, some fur- 

 ther details may be allowable in this class, since only a few of the rarer 

 species have been noticed along with the Flowering Plants. 



The localities which are in the Isle of Wight most productive of 

 Ferns are chiefly situated upon the Lower Greensand formation, which 

 both in itself offers stations more favourable for their growth, and 

 abounds in those boggy woods and heaths, in the absence of which 

 many of our finest species could hardly flourish. Not that any of the 

 hedge-banks are deficient in the commoner kinds, such as Polystichum 

 angulare, Lastrea Filix-mas, and Scolopendrium, which are plentiful in 

 every shady lane, and Polypodium vulgare and Asplenium Adiantum- 

 nigrum are scarcely less general ; but when to them we have added the 

 universal Pteris aquilina, it requires some little search and observation 

 to detect a good proportion of the other fourteen species, which raise 

 the total number to twenty. There are besides five kinds of Equisetum, 

 but no Club-moss has yet been found to inhabit the Isle of Wight. 



Ceterach officinarum is very rare in the Isle of Wight. It grows 

 abundantly on Brading church about the south porch. The walls of 

 Carisbrook Castle are another locality. 



Polypodium vulgare (common Polypody"] is general and abundant. 

 It has been found with forked pinnae and with fronds doubly pinnatifid, 

 in the Undercliff and at Brighstone ; and it is not unusual to meet with 

 fronds bearing pinnae more or less deeply serrated, as at Quarr, 

 Grove, &c. 



Polystichum aculeatum is exceedingly scarce. A single root was 

 discovered at Bembridge by the late Dr. Salter. A few other plants 

 may still exist in what was once Little Smallbrook Copse ; and it is 

 thought to have occurred also near East Cowes. 



Polystichum angulare is abundant on hedge-banks and in woods. 



Lastrea Thelypteris (Marsh Fern) is not very rare, though local. 

 The chief stations are in different boggy thickets along the course of the 

 main river or East Yar ; as, near Alverstone above the mill ; in Alver- 

 stone Lynch ; at Knighton ; at Newchurch ; and Merry Gardens. 

 Along the Medina it abounds in the wettest parts of the Wilderness, 

 and in a boggy meadow at Cridmore. There are besides two outlying 

 stations : one a willow thicket north-east of Compton Grange ; the other 

 in the marsh at Easton Freshwater Gate, where it is plentiful. 



Lastrea Oreopteris (Sweet Mountain Fern) is very rare, if not ex- 

 tinct. America Woods (Apse Castle) near Shanklin, and a low wet 

 bank at Guilford are the only ascertained stations ; in both it has been 

 lately sought unsuccessfully. 



L. Filix-mas (Male Fern) is plentiful; the variety with incised and 



