240 
towards the apex, where they are often entirely wanting, always dis- 
tant and scattered. Jnvolucre very distinct at first, -its insertion ob- 
lique, its disk almost flat, its tendency rather to concavity than 
convexity, its margin irregular but scarcely lacerated. 
Habitat. Glen Prosen, in Scotland. Found also in Lithuania, 
Siberia, Kamschatka. Extremely local. 
The reader is referred to ‘ History of British Ferns,’ pp. 204 and 
205, for a more detailed description. The additions and corrections 
above are—lIst, the elbowed character and spreading habit of the 
fronds; 2nd, their successive and not simultaneous development ; 
8rdly, the crowded fructification at the base, in which this species is 
quite isolated among European ferns; and, 4thly, the distinct invo- 
lucre, which was at first entirely overlooked. 
Much has been said of the difficulty of distinguishing this species 
from Pseudathyrium alpestre; but this difficulty is imaginary. In 
many instances botanists have obligingly sent me the supposed 
flexile, the supposed intermediates, and supposed alpestre, in order 
to convince me of the nullity of this species. In these instances 
flexile has never occurred among the contrasted forms, alpestre 
rarely. The fronds in nine cases out of ten have proved Athyrium 
Filix-femina, the seedling forms being supposed to be flexile, and the 
fronds of a few rather older plants, intermediates. In a few instances 
Cystopteris fragilis ‘has been sent as flexile. In the discussions on 
this fern, as well as in those on Feenisecii and uliginosum, the dis- 
sentient opinions arise from non-acquaintance with the form under 
discussion: it tends to no good purpose to discuss the similarities or 
differences of two objects if we have only knowledge of one. I be- 
lieve, in the case of uliginosum, that the disputants have no know- 
ledge whatever of the plant, first described by Doll and afterwards 
by myself. My friend Mr. George Maw, of Brosely, than whom a 
more sincere truth-seeker or a more diligent inquirer never lived, ap- 
pears to me quite to have mistaken the plant intended; none of the 
specimens distributed as uliginosum by this liberal botanist possess 
the distinguishing character, “pinnules adnate or decurrent,” which 
occur in each of the published descriptions, and emphatically sepa- 
rate this plant from Lophodium spinosum. 
Epwarp NEWMAN. 
ue 
Edward Newman, Printer, 9, Devonshire Street, Bishopsgate Street, London. 
