128 ENGLTSH BOTANY. 



less brown, at least towards the base, margined with narrow green 

 wings, glabrous. Pinnae with a flexuous mid-vein, giving off forked 

 branches running into but not reaching the crenatures. Sori linear 

 or strapshaped or oblong, mostly attached to the anterior fork of the 

 venule, usually commencing at the margin, and not unfrequently 

 extending nearly to the midrib, but variable in position with regard 

 to both, rarely confluent. Indusium entire. Spores tuberculated, 

 with numerous blunt rounded tubercles. 



Var. a. genuinum. 

 Pinnae rhomboidal-oblong or rhomboid-oval, obtuse. 



Var. /3. acutum. Moore. 



Pinnae oblong-triangular or strapshaped-triangular or linear-tri- 

 angular, acute. 



In the crevices of rocks and in caves, near the sea. Frequent in 

 the south and west, from Sussex to Orkney and Shetland ; rarer on the 

 east coast, though occurring in a few stations from York northwards. 

 Frequent in Ireland. Rare inland, though it has occurred near 

 Warrino-ton and Newton, Lancashire, and at the Lakes of Killarney, 

 co. Kerry. Var. ft occurs in Cornwall and Devonshire, and in the 

 Channel Islands, along with the commoner form. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 



Plant growing in dense tufts, which take their shape from the 

 fissures of the rock on which it grows. Crowns thickly clothed with 

 purplish-brown scales, in which there are many longitudinal thick- 

 ened bars. Stipes varying much in length even in the fronds from 

 the same tuft, thicker and more brittle than in the preceding species. 

 Var. a has the stipes 2| to 5 inches long. Lamina 1£ to 8 inches long, 

 and f to 2 inches broad ; pinnae usually close together, more developed 

 at the base on the anterior than on the posterior side, and with the 

 anterior portion of the base usually parallel with the rachis, thick 

 and fleshy in texture, and deep glossy green in colour. Sori when 

 Ion"-, generally with their ends equally near the margin and midrib, 

 but when they are abbreviated they are sometimes near the midrib 

 and sometimes near the margin, generally speaking they remain dis- 

 tinct, but occasionally, or in small specimens, they become confluent. 



Var. y8 is a larger plant, with the pinnae rounder and more pointed, 

 the venules making a more acute angle with the mid-vein than in var. a. 

 I have specimens from Plymouth Hoe with stipes 9 inches long, and 

 the lamina about a foot long by 4 inches broad, and Mr. T. Moore 



