CRYPTOGAMIA— FILICES. Aspidium. 287 



Polystichum montanum. Roth. Germ. v. 3. 74. 



Filix non ramosa nostras, pinnulis brevibus, acutioribus, integris, 



nonnihil falcatis, punctis ferrugineis ad oras pulverulentibus. 



Pluk. Amaith. 91. 

 F. maris vulgaris varietas. Doody in Rail Syn. ed.2. 341, ed. 3. 122. 

 /3. F. pumila saxatilis altera Clusii. Rail Syn. 122. 



On mountainous heaths, and in dry woods. 



Most plentiful in Scotland. Dickson. In the north of England. 

 Withering. Near Southampton. Mr. Lambert. Gathered on 

 Ben Lomond, in 1782, and long afterwards at Hafod, Cardigan- 

 shire. 



/3. Plentiful in stony mountainous parts of Derbyshire, Yorkshire, 

 and Westmoreland. Ray. On the Welsh mountains about 

 Llanberys. Richardson. 



Perennial. July. 



This species, which has formerly been confounded with the pre- 

 ceding as well as with the following, agrees with the latter in 

 size and general aspect, being usually thrice as large as A. The- 

 lypteris ; though the variety /3, is scarcely equal to the ordi- 

 nary height of even that plant. The root is not creeping, but 

 tufted, large and scaly, formed of many strong, stout, entangled 

 fibres. Fronds several, ranged in a circle, erect, lanceolate, 

 leafy nearly to the bottom, their stalks being very short and 

 scaly ; the leafy part mostly naked and smooth, channelled along 

 the upper side. Leaflets in general opposite, sessile, but not 

 crossing each other at the bottom, numerous, pointed, deeply 

 and numerously pinnatifid, smooth except the midrib, which 

 is for the most part finely downy, not scaly, as seems to be ex- 

 pressed in Engl. Botany ; the segments flat, obtuse, entire, 

 very rarely crenateat the extremity ; the under side besprinkled 

 with shining, yellowish, resinous globules, exhaling, more or 

 less constantly, a fragrant scent, whence perhaps Mr. Hudson 

 might take this fern for Polypodium fragrans of Linnaeus. These 

 globules are represented in Hedwig's figure, quoted above, as 

 if they were the seeds. The real masses of capsules are disposed 

 in a simple row, near the margin of each lobe, whence some 

 have taken the plant for Polypodium marginale of Linnaeus, 

 which is a very distinct North American species. When ripe 

 these masses become nearly confluent, forming brown, mar- 

 ginal, beaded lines. The cover of each mass is small and thin, 

 fixed by the centre, jagged, and soon obliterated. 

 I have seen no original specimen of Ray's plant, my ^ ; but the 

 small ones, gathered on Ben Lomond in 1782, and then taken 

 for Thelypteris, their resinous globules being noticed as some- 

 thing peculiar, may very probably be this variety, though it by 

 no means answers to the Filix pumila saxatilis altera of Clusius, 

 which has a creeping root, and long naked stalks. 



