$6 WHERE TO FIND FERNS. 



VII. THE LADY FERN. 



Athyrium filix-fcemina. 

 (Plate VIIL, Fig. i, page 63.) 



LENGTH OF FROND. A foot to five feet, according 

 to position and conditions of growth largest in the most 

 moist and shady places. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. Roots fibrous, abundant. 

 Rootstock, a tufted cormus, its crown raised slightly above 

 the surface of the ground. Fronds numerous, deciduous, 

 delicate, brittle, drooping, produced in tufts. Each 

 stipes usually much shorter than the leafy part, and 

 light green or purplish in colour, with a few scales 

 scattered upon it near the base ; leafy part lance-shaped 

 somewhat broadly ; bipinnate, the pinnse narrowly 

 lance-shaped and tapering, and placed along the rachis 

 alternately or in opposite pairs ; pinnules blunt-pointed, 

 oblong, serrated, or indented most deeply near the frond 

 base, less deeply higher up. Fructification produced in 

 double rows of sori, one on either side of the midvein of 

 each pinnule, each row of sori being about equidistant 

 from the midvein and the edge of the pinnule. The 

 sori are covered by kidney-shaped indusia, which burst 

 and fall away on the ripening of the spores, whose cases 

 are then light brown in colour. 



HABITATS. The dampest and shadiest parts of woods, 

 especially luxuriant where water oozes over gently-slop- 

 ing ground ; hedgebanks, in shady lanes ; moist and 

 shady crannies of rocks ; the shady margins of streams, 

 and the sides of waterfalls. 



WHERE FOUND. In England, in the counties of 

 Bedford, Berks, Buckingham, Cambridge, Chester, Corn- 

 wall, Cumberland, Derby, Devon, Dorset, Durham, 



