FILIUES. 91 



or ovate-lanceolate erose-denticulate brown concolorous scales. Lamina 

 coriaceous, rigid, dark green, shining, much paler beneath, strapshaped, 

 tapering gradually at the base and apex, pinnate ; rachis thickly clothed 

 with lanceolate, and the under surface of the frond sparingly clothed 

 with linear scales, many of which are deciduous ; pinnae very shortly 

 stalked, oblong-triangular or strapshaped-triangular, the lower ones 

 deltoid, all more or less auriculate at the base on the anterior side, 

 and more or less evidently doubly serrate, with the middle tooth of 

 each serrature prolonged into a rigid spine. Ultimate veins not 

 impressed on the upper surface, but deeply so beneath, running from 

 the mid-vein of the pinna and auricle to the margin, and giving off 

 one or two branches, which run to the base of the teeth. Sori 

 commonly confined to the upper half or third of the frond, but 

 occasionally extending further down, round, attached to the first 

 anterior branch of each of the ultimate veins, and forming a line on 

 each side of the mid-vein of the pinna, about equidistant from the 

 mid-vein and the margin, with a loop at the base extending into 

 the auricle, and in luxuriant plants sometimes with a second short 

 line between the primary one and the margin on the base of the 

 upper side of the pinnae immediately above the auricle. Indusium 

 umbilicate, circular, dentate at the margin, soon shrivelling. Spores 

 tuberculate, with rather large very prominent obtuse tubercles, inter- 

 mingled with numerous smaller and more acute ones. 



Among rocky de'bris on mountains. On Snowdon and the neigh- 

 bouring mountains ; the Yorkshire mountains ; Teesdale, Durham, 

 nearly, if not quite extinct ; Helvellyn, Cumberland ; Westmoreland ; 

 between Alnwick and Morpeth, Northumberland. Frequent in the 

 Scotch Highlands, extending to Sutherland ; Hoy Hill, Orkney 

 (Dr. J. Anderson), and in fissures of rocks, G-reenigoe, Hoy (Dr. A. 

 A. Duguid). Mangerton and Brandon mountain, county Kerry ; Ben 

 Bulbin and the neighbouring mountains, co. Sligo ; Glenade moun- 

 tain, Leitrim. " Near Lough Eske, Donegal, and also Rosses and 

 Fanet," are probably errors. (See 'Journal of Botany,' 1881, p. 240.) 

 The ' Cybele Hibernica,' in addition to these localities, mentions that 

 a single root was found near Edgworthstown, Longford, and a single 

 root on a hedgebank near Dungannon, Tyrone. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Autumn. 



Caudex apparently of very slow growth, rarely above H inch in 

 diameter. Fronds 3 to 18 inches long, by 1 to 2£ broad, very rigid, 



N 2 



