Rowlands: Ferns of New England 55 



The form intermedium, commonest with you, does not 

 occur at all in Britain; dilalatum, your rarest, is far 

 more common here than the type, and with us is not 

 essentially a mountain form. 



The genus Aspidium is represented by A. aculeatvm 

 and its variety angulare, and A. Lonchitis. If I remember 

 rightly, A. aculeatum var. Braunii is the only New Eng- 

 land representative of the group. 



Were you to visit our woods, how you would miss 

 Nephrodium marginals, and your common Christmas 

 fern! These are, however, sometimes seen in cultiva- 

 tion. Your noble Nephrodium Goldieanum is also absent. 



We have some Aspleniums in common with you. 

 A. Trichomanes is fairly common with us, A. viride much 

 rarer, but A. Ruta-muraria is often found plentifully 

 growing in the mortar of old walls. A. ebeneum is not 



found here. 



Asplenium jilix foemina, the lady fern, is very common 

 with us and is very variable, but A. theylptero i des is not 

 found. By the way, many British fernists refuse to 

 admit the lady fern to the genus Asplenium, preferring 

 to put it into another genus, Athyrium. 



We have only one royal fern— Osmwida regalis. Some- 

 how I could never convince myself that your form is not 

 quite distinct from ours. Your form seemed to me to 

 be rather less robust and more graceful than ours, with 

 other differences which I am unable to describe. The 

 cinnamon and interrupted ferns, which I got rather 

 tired of seeing so often, are only found here as imported 

 varieties. 



Woodsia ilvensis, fairly abundant with you, is quite a 

 rarity here, occurring only in high mountains in Scot- 

 land. W. hyperborea is our only other species, also very 

 rare. Our only Botrychium is B. Lunaria, which is not 

 common. Ophioglossum vulgatum is rather more fre- 

 quent. My < ■xperienee of it is that it does not grow in 



