98 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



I have not seen the plant alive, but the large scales of the stipes 

 seem paler in colour than in P. angulare ; and, judging from dried 

 specimens, the seedling state is more similar to the adult. 



Soft Holly fern. 



GENUS X— W O O D S I A. i?. Brawn. 



Fronds produced from the upper part of the caudex and its branches, 

 approximate or tufted, once pinnate, rarely bipinnate, often scaly 

 beneath. Stipes not articulated to the caudex, but with an articulation 

 at some distance above the base. Veins all free. Sori punctiform, 

 round, attached to the back of the ultimate veins below their apex. 

 Indusium calyciform, surrounding the sorus, cut into long segments 

 nearly to the base. 



Name in honour of Joseph "Woods, a celebrated English botanist. 



SPECIES I.-W OODSIA ILVENSIS. B. Brown. 



Plate 1862. 



Eabenh. Crypt. Vase. Europ. Exsicc. No. 15. 



W. rufidula, Beck. Milde, Fil. Europ. p. 164. 



W. Eaiana, Neicm. Hist. Brit. Ferns, ed. ii. p. 140, and ed. iii. p. 73 (a suggested name only). 



W. hyperborea, (3. rufidula, Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 975. 



Acrostichum Ilvense, Linn. Spec. Plant, p. 1528. 



Polypodinm Ilvense, Sicartz, Syn. Fil. p. 39. 



Aspidium rutidulum, Swartz, Syn. Fil. p. 58. 



Lastrea rufidula, Presl, Pter. p. 76. 



Caudex short, dividing into a number of small crowns, which are 

 closely packed together. Stipes breaking off" by an articulation a 

 little below the middle, reddish, with broadly-lanceolate pale brown 

 scales at the base, and numerous narrow and hair-like mostly 

 deciduous scales in the upper part. Lamina oblong-strapshaped 

 or triangular-strapshaped, pinnate or bipinnate ; pinnae triangular- 

 oblong or triangular-strapshaped, deeply pinnatifid or pinnatipartite, 

 or even pinnate towards the base, usually thinly clothed above and 

 thickly clothed beneath with long hairs, which are at first whitish, 

 afterwards reddish-brown and partially deciduous ; lobes oblong or 

 ovate, obtuse or rounded, crenate or entire ; rachis and mid-veins of 

 the pinnae with numerous long linear acute scales. Indusium saucer- 

 shaped, divided into numerous filiform segments, which are much 

 longer than the undivided portion, and incurved over the sori. 



