112 WHERE TO FIND FERNS. 



much resembles in some other respects ; stipes very 

 short, straw-coloured as is also the rachis and fur- 

 nished with a few, light-coloured scales, which are often 

 continued upon, and a short way along, the rachis ; leafy 

 part lance-shaped, widest about the middle, pointed at 

 the apex, and tapering gradually at the base until the 

 pinnae are less than half an inch long ; pinna? opposite 

 or alternate upon the rachis, long, narrow, pointed, widest 

 at the base each pinna pinnatifid and more or less 

 deeply cleft into oblong, blunt-pointed pinnules. Fruc- 

 tification marginal, produced in lines of sori along the 

 two margins of each pinnule, most abundant on the 

 upper side of the frond ; sori partially indusiate, the 

 indusia consisting of little rounded scales situated upon 

 the centre of the sori, and soon falling off as the period 

 of spore-ripening arrives. 



HABITATS. Open heaths; moors; the more open 

 parts of woods and forests ; hillsides ; mountain-sides ; 

 streamsides. In many cases it completely occupies the 

 ground. On the ground between stones that border 

 moorland streams this species may often be seen grow- 

 ing in great beauty and luxuriance. Its presence is 

 ordinarily very conspicuous its golden-green fronds 

 covering hillsides with their wealth of golden green, and 

 perfuming the air with their balsamic fragrance. 



WHERE FOUND. \\\ England, in the counties of Bucks, 

 Chester, Cornwall, Cumberland, Derby, Devon, Dorset, 

 Durham, Essex, Gloucester, Hants (the mainland and 

 the Isle of Wight), Hereford, Hertford, Kent, Lancaster, 

 Leicester, Lincoln, Middlesex, Monmouth, Norfolk, 

 Northampton, Northumberland, Nottingham, Oxford, 

 Rutland, Salop, Somerset, Stafford, Suffolk, Surrey, 

 Sussex, Warwick, Westmoreland, Wilts, Worcester, and 

 York. In Wales, in the counties of Anglesea, Breck- 

 nock, Caermarthen, Caernarvon, Cardigan, Denbigh, 

 Flint, Glamorgan, Merioneth, Pembroke, and Radnor. 

 In the Isle of Man. In Scotland, in the counties of 



