FILICES. 139 



Pass of Ballater ; near Inver, Aberdeenshire, on granite, though in 

 Scotland it is elsewhere found on trap rocks facing the south. 



England, Scotland. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 



Fronds (including the stipes) 2 to 7 inches high ; segments from 

 h to I inch long by y L to £ long, tapering so insensibly downwards 

 that it is difficult to say where the lamina ends and the stalk begins. 

 In large examples the fronds divide into two stalked portions making 

 an acute angle with each other, and these again divide in a similar 

 manner ; but in small specimens they fork only once, and occasionally 

 do not fork at all. 



Forked Spleenwort. 



GENUS XIV.-Q E T E R A C H . Willd. 



Fronds produced from the apex of the caudex, tufted, subcoriaceous, 

 pinnatifid, densely clothed beneath with imbricated ovate sub- 

 cordate scales, which are at first silvery, afterwards pale reddish- 

 brown. Stipes not articulated to the caudex, containing 2 vascular 

 bundles which unite upwards and give a 4-lobed section in the centre 

 of the stipes. Veins forked, the ultimate ones more or less anasto- 

 mosing. Scales clathrate, composed of short cells, with thickened 

 boundaries. Sori linear, attached along the side of the veins. Indu- 

 sium absent, or rudimentary and attached along the vein. 



Name from Chetherak, a name applied to some fern used by the Arabian and 

 Persian physicians. 



SPECIES I. -CETERACH OFFICINARUM. 



Plate 1883. 



Babenh. Crypt. Vase. Europ. Essicc. No. 12. 



Asplenium Ceterach, Linn. Sp. PI. 1538. Hook. & Bak. Syn. Ml. ed. ii. p. 245. Hook. 



fil. Stud. Fl. ed. ii. p. 493. 

 Grammites Ceterach, Schwartz. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 974. 

 Scolopendrium Ceterach, Symons. Smith, Eng. Bot. ed. i. No. 1244 ; and Eng. Fl. 



Vol. IV. p. 315. 

 Gymnogramme Ceterach, Spreng. Ledebour, Fl. Ross. Vol. IV. p. 507. 

 Notolepium Ceterach, Newm. Hist. Brit. Ferns, ed. ii. p. 9, and ed. iii. p. 278 ; and 



Phytol. 1851, App. p. v. 



Caudex short, dividing into several closely packed crowns. Fronds 

 numerous from each crown, spreading. Stipes short, from 1 to \ 

 the length of the lamina, rarely more than half the length of the 

 lamina, thickly clothed with lanceolate or ovate acuminated scales at 



T 2 



