Outlines of the Botany of the Isle of Wight. 523 



sometimes elongated pinnules is not rare in shady woods ; the variety 

 paleacea or Rorreri, with abundant ruddy scales on the stipes, occurs in 

 many places, especially upon peaty soil. 



L. spinosa is not common ; but will be found to inhabit most of the 

 boggy willow thickets, &c., often in company with L. Thelypteris. 



Z. dilatata occurs wherever there is a bog, and also on the shady 

 banks of deep-cut lanes. 



Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum (Black Spleenwort) is common 

 throughout the sandy district ; but is more sparingly distributed else- 

 where. 



A. Trichomanes (Common Spleenwort) is rare. The rocks in the 

 Undercliff; West Cowes ; Quarr Abbey ; Carisbrook Castle ; Chale and 

 Shorwell, are the principal localities. I have more than once heard the 

 name of " Maidenhair" applied in mistake to this species. 



A. marinum (Sea Spleenwort) used formerly to grow in very small 

 quantity upon some rocks at Niton, but it is believed to have been com- 

 pletely eradicated. 



A. Ruta-muraria (Wall Rue) is rare. Ryde; Arreton Church; 

 East Cowes; Calbourne, and Freshwater churches, are the localities 

 where it has been found. 



Athyrium Filix-fosmina (Lady Fern), with most of its varieties, is 

 abundant wherever the soil is boggy. 



Scolopendrium vulgar e (Hart's-tongue) has been found bifid and 

 multifid, crested, and crisped, &c. 



Pteris aquilina (Brake) is plentiful, especially on the heathy com- 

 mons ; it grows even on chalk upon the north slope of Bembridge 

 Down. 



Blechnum boreale (Hard Fern) is local, but not of very unusual 

 occurrence, chiefly in the boggy parts of the sandy districts. 



Osmunda regalis (Flowering Fern) its usual companion, is the more 

 generally distributed of the two ; like the Blechnum, it abounds most 

 along the course of the East Yar and the Medina, and other places 

 upon the greensand. 



Botrychium Lunar ia (Moon-wort) is rather rare ; Nunwell ; Shank- 

 lin ; Landslip ; and especially the Wilderness and Rookley, are the 

 known stations, but it requires a close and careful search to find so 

 small a plant. 



Ophioglossum vulgatum (Adder's-tongue) is not very uncommon. 

 It grows in several damp meadows about Bembridge ; in the Undercliff; 

 about Appuldurcombe, and in the Wilderness ; in Parkhurst Forest ; 

 and in the marsh at Easton. 



It will be observed that Lastraea Fcenisecii, Asplenium lanceolatum, 

 and Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense, are apparently wanting in the Isle 

 of Wight, though any one of them is likely enough to occur. 



