LASTREA. 121 



This species occurs only on boggy heaths, and that in but 

 few places in Britain, confined, we believe, to the counties 

 of Nottinghamshire, Cheshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk. It is 

 easily cultivated, either in a pot, or planted in a damp, some- 

 what shady situation, and preferring a peaty soil. 



A Eern which has, within the last year or two, attracted 

 some attention, and which Mr. Newman has called Lastrea 

 uliginosa, we notice here as a variety of Lastrea cristata. 

 It is exactly intermediate in its general appearance and cha- 

 racters between that species and Lastrea spinulosa, and 

 would perhaps, at first sight, be rather considered a state of 

 the latter than of the former. In the mode in which its 

 young fronds are rolled up, and in the arrangement of its 

 veins, it however agrees best with cristata, and for this rea- 

 son we prefer to consider it a variety of that species approach- 

 ing spinulosa, with which latter it agrees most closely in the 

 form of its pinnules. 



This Pern forms a stout crown or root-stock, having a 

 tendency to multiply by lateral off-shoots. From the crown 

 the fronds spring up in a circle, and grow nearly erect to 

 the height of from two to three feet ; these bear the fructifi- 

 cation. Other fronds, however, are produced, which are 

 barren, and these do not grow so erect, nor put on the same 



