202 CRYPTOGAMIA— FILICES. Cystea. 



or only wavy at the margin j the ribs of all more or less wavy. 

 The ultimate divisions, in every instance, are oblong or linear, 

 never dilated, rounded, or ovate ; they are sometimes, though 

 seldom, notched or cloven at the end. By this linear, or oblong, 

 mode of division, and its thinner more pliant texture, the present 

 species may readily be known from both the preceding, with 

 which it has generally been confounded. The masses of capsules, 

 much smaller, and less prominent, than in those species, always 

 continue distinct, standing either solitary or in pairs, towards 

 the bottom of each lobe or tooth, and are round, at first pale, 

 subsequently brown. Cover white, very thin, concave, irre- 

 gularly torn, soon pushed off, or turned aside, by the com- 

 paratively large, though far from numerous, shining brown cap- 

 sules. 



Great confusion has always existed amongst our British botanists 

 concerning Polypodium rhceticum. Hooker has it not. Light- 

 foot appears, by what he says in his Fl. Scot. 678, to have been 

 acquainted, like Mr. Dickson, with our Cystea angustata under 

 that name ; and he quotes Gerarde rightly, justly objecting to 

 Plukenet's ^.179./. 5. Lightfoot's description is excellent, 

 though he submits, as I have formerly done, to Haller, Weis, 

 and others, who consider it as a variety of our C.fragilis. The 

 late Mr. Davall took it for Haller's n. 1705; but that plant, 

 with many errors in the synonyms, is certainly Aspidium 

 dilatatum. Our Cystea angustata may be n. 1708 of Haller, but 

 his references are confused. Mr. Hudson, on seeing Mr. Davall's 

 specimens of the Fern in question, declared it very different from 

 his own Polypodium rhceticum, which indeed is Aspidium dume- 

 torum. I have little scruple in referring the obscure and long- 

 disputed figure of Clusius, reprinted in Gerarde, as above 

 quoted, to this Cystea angustata, though the draughtsman has 

 omitted the ultimate divisions of the lenjlets, well enough ex- 

 pressed by Hoffmann and Villars. I have never received this 

 Fern from Wales, but if it be not Ray's Polypodium ilvense, it 



• is wanting in the Si/nopsis. The wooden cut of Dalechamp, 

 copied in J. Bauhin, and quoted doubtingly by Ray, should 

 rather seem to be the totally different Acrostichuvi Marantce, 

 as Bauhin himself suspected. 



4. C. regia. Laciniated Bladder-fern. 



Frond lanceolate, doubly pinnate ; leaflets deeply pinna- 

 tifid, with oblong, blunt, partly notched segments. 

 Partial stalks winged. Masses numerous, scattered, 

 permanently distinct. 



Polypodium regium. Linn. Sp. PI. 1553 j according to ClifforVs 



Herbarium. Hull 240. 

 P. n. 9. Linn. Hort. Cliff. 475. 



