102 WHERE TO FIND FERNS. 



XXX. THE MALE FERN. 



Lastrea filix-mas. 

 (Plate XV., Fig. i, page 77.) 



LENGTH OF FROND. One foot to five feet, according 

 to its more or less congenial conditions of growth. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. Roots abundant, long, wiry, 

 fibrous. Rootstock, a large, tufted cormus, whose crown 

 is sometimes raised several inches above the ground, and 

 is always raised to some extent. Fronds broadly lance- 

 shaped, numerous, rigid, thick, bold-looking, somewhat 

 leathery, produced in a circle around the crown, shuttle- 

 cock-shape ; stipes usually very short not exceeding a 

 sixth of the length of the leafy part densely covered, 

 as is the crown of the rootstock and the under (and 

 sometimes the upper) sides of the rachides, by rust- 

 coloured scales, which often extend in smaller form and 

 less thickly to the under sides of the rachides or mid- 

 stems of the pinnae ; leafy part pinnate in small speci- 

 mens and partially bipinnate in more luxuriant ones ; 

 pinnae placed on the rachis in opposite pairs, or alter- 

 nately, long, tapering, and pointed, widest at their bases, 

 becoming smaller gradually outwards, and again divided 

 into oblong, somewhat short, blunt pinnules closely set 

 together with great regularity so much so that their 

 apices form almost straight lines. These symmetrical 

 pinnae are either pinnate or pinnatifid some being the 

 one and some the other in finely-developed specimens 

 the tendency to division being always less towards the 

 apex of the frond and towards the apices of the pinnae. 

 Fructification usually confined to upper half of under side 

 of frond, and consisting of rows of sori, a row on each 

 side of the midvein of each pinnule each sorus being 



