128 



Loive, Prim. Faun, et Fit. Mad. p. 7. Seubert, Fl. Azov. p. 16. 

 Lastrea, Wats. Bab. Moore, Brit. Ferns, nat. print, t. 27- 

 Lophodiuiu Foenisecii, recurvum, and concavum, Newm. 

 Aspid. recurvum, Bree. A. dilatatum, Hijll. Fl. of Mad. in 

 Hook. Jonrn. Bot. 18.34. i.;^ 16. 



B, dumetorum ; " frond douldy pinnate, pinnules pinnatifid, 

 lobes with terminal sharp prickly teeth, common stalk scaly, 

 involucres flat orbicular with a deep notch/' Sm. under As- 

 pid. dumetorum, Engl. Fl. iv. />. 281. N. spinulosum, S du- 

 metorum. Hook. Brit. Ferns, t. 21. Lastrea dumetorum, " T. 

 Moore, MS. in Herb, {not L. dilatata, var. dumetorum, lb. 

 Handb. of Brit. Fer7is, p. 124)," accord, to Moore, in Brit. 

 Ferns, nat. print. 1855 ; but the same reference is retained in 

 Moore, Handb. of Brit. Ferns, ed. 3. 1857- L- dilatata, var. 

 dumetorum, Moore, Brit. Ferns, nat. j)r int. t. 25. Aspid. spi- 

 nulosum, yS, Hook, et Am. Brit. Fl. ed. 7- p. 586 [in ed. 8, it is 

 given as a synonym of K. dilatatum). L. dilatata, var. collina, 

 and var. maculata, Moore. L. collina, L. multiflora, var. 

 collina, and Lophodium collinum, Neivm. Polypod. crista- 

 tum, /S, Huds. Angl. ed. \. p. 39\, fide Sm. 



Hal). Almost universal throughout Europe, from the Mediterranean to Swe- 

 den and Norway, and eastward through the Russian dominions to Ta-Lien-whan, 

 North China (CoZ. Urqichart), and to Kamtchatka; and in similar latitudes in 

 North America, from the southren states to the northern lakes of Canada, and across 

 the Rocky mountains to British Columhia. Cape of Good Hope, Brege. Var. 7. 

 Madeira, Azores, England and Ireland and Scotland, in Herb. Kostr. — Perhaps no 

 group of Ferns has occasioned more difference of opinion than the supposed species 

 I have here hrought under the Asjjidhim spinulosum of Sw. Being all natives of 

 Britain, I devoted my best attention, and with large suites of specimens before me, 

 to the consideration of them for publication in my ' British Ferns,' and the re- 

 sults of my present further investigations do not induce me to alter my views. — 

 The var. S, dumetorum, does bear a great resemblance to some of the more com- 

 pound or bipinnated forms of N. Filix-mas; and a very attentive student of Bri- 

 tish Ferns, Mr. Clowes (see Hook. British Ferns, under N. remotum, t. 22, which 

 I am now disposed to refer to a state of F.-mas), concludes his remarks on that 

 Fern, by observing that " as this Fern appears to connect the two forms Lastrea 

 spinulosa and L. Filix-mas, we have now, it would seem, a continuous series from 

 typical F.-mas to L. dilatata, — as the latter and spinvlosa are apparently united by 

 gtandulosa." I am not prepared at present to adojjt this opinion ; but founded as 

 it is on close observation on living specimens, it should be a caution to what are 

 called " straw-splitters." 



{Variously decompound, but not polystichoid. Sp. 116-143.) 



116. N. (Lastrea) hirtuni, "iiook. ; caudex short rounded 

 erect shaggy with long silky ferruginous subulate scales, 

 stipites flexuose wiry 4-6 inches to a span long tufted glandu- 

 lar and paleaceous with brown subulate flexuose scales, fronds 



