154 FILICES. 



the lobes. Fructification on the back of the frond, and confined 

 usually to its upper part ; clusters large and circular, without 

 any indusium or covering ; sori tawny or orange-coloured. Very 

 abundant. In the chasm at Daddyhole Plain. Cockington lanes. 

 Babbicombe and Ilsham Downs. Maidencombe. Forde bog. 

 Bradley woods, etc. (E. B. t. 1149.) Moore, 'Nature- Printed 

 Ferns,' 1. 1. The variety, P. semilacerum, Moore, ' Nature- Printed 

 Ferns,' t. 2, " fronds pinnatifid and fertile above, bipinnatifid 

 below; lobules distinct, linear, acute, serrate" (Moore's Hand- 

 boofc), is found sometimes on the rocks at Ansti's Cove, and on 

 the ruined walls of Berry Pomeroy Castle. P. vn.-x. 



2. P. Phegopteris (mountain Polypody , or Seech Fern.) 

 In damp woods, in hilly countries, and in the neighbourhood of 

 waterfalls, the spray of which it appears to delight in. " Fronds 

 pinnate ; pinnee linear-lanceolate, united at the base, pinnatifid 

 with linear blunt lobes ; lowest pair of pinnee turned dowmvards 

 a*dforwards,the rest upwards, clusters marginal" (Sab. Manual). 

 Rhizome dark- coloured, extensively creeping, somewhat scaly, 

 and sending forth black wiry roots. Fronds from 4 to 20 inches 

 long, triangular in outline, borne on a stipes as long as or gene- 

 rally longer than itself. Pinnae very acute, with the exception 

 of the lowest pair, pointing upwards, deeply pinnatifid, those 

 near the apex becoming gradually entire ; lowest pair of pinnae 

 distinct from the rest and minutely stalked ; all the others con- 

 nected with the rachis by their whole width, the basal segments 

 forming at their junction a cross-like figure. Yenation of the 

 lobes formed by a slender tortuous midvein giving off alternate 

 branches which do not generally again divide, but which extend 

 to the margin and bear a small sorus near the end of each. The 

 sori are circular and nearly marginal, without any indusium; 

 spore-cases pale brown. Woods at Home Chase, near Holne 

 Bridge. Beckey Falls. Parts of Dartmoor. (E. B. t. 2224.) 

 Moore, c Nature-Printed Ferns,' t. 4 ; Sowerby's Ferns, t. 2. 



P. YII.-IX. 



POLYSTICHUM. SHIELD-FERN. 



1. P. aculeatum (common prickly Shield-Fern) On hedge- 

 banks and in woods. Fronds riff id, lanceolate or broadly 

 linear-lanceolate, bipinnate, pinnules obliquely decurrent, acute, 

 the anterior basal pinnule much longer than the rest. Caudex 

 thick and tufted ; stipes short, usually about 3 or 4 inches long, 

 thickly covered with broad ovate-lanceolate brown scales ; rachis 

 thick and also scaly, scales broad below but becoming linear above ; 

 fronds from 1 to 3 or more feet high (some which I gathered, 



