31G CRYPTOGAMIA— FILICES. Blechnum. 



Perennial. At almost all seasons. 



Root fibrous, black, tufted ; scaly at the crown. Fronds nume- 

 rous, tufted, spreading, from three to six inches high, leathery, 

 oblong, bluntish, deeply and bluntly sinuated in an alternate 

 order, the margin entire ; upper surface smooth, of a deep, 

 slightly glaucous, opaque green, with a scaly midrib, but no 

 apparent veins ; under thickly clothed with lanceolate, acute, 

 membranous, rusty scales. Stalks hardly one-fourth the length 

 of the whole. Masses oblong, in two obliquely transverse rows 

 on each lobe, imbedded in the scales of the frond. Covers one 

 at each side of each mass, as in the preceding species, erect, 

 membranous, continuous, undulated, entire, quite distinct from 

 the pointed separate scales. 



I cannot ascertain whether the lines of capsules are originally 

 double as in Scolopendrlum vulgare, but the covers are evidently 

 such as to leave no doubt of the genus, answering exactly to 

 Tournefort's figure, which Swartz and Willdenow surely did 

 not examine. The latter indeed has well removed this Fern 

 from Grammitis, to which it has no natural affinity. 



468. BLECHNUM. Hard-fern. 



Linn. Gen. 560. Juss.]5. Fl.Br.W^d. Act. Taurin. v. 5. 4l\. 



TractslSr.Sw.Syn.Fil.llS. Willd.Sp.Pl.v.5.A07 . Lam. t. 869. 



Spreng. Crypt, f. 34. 

 Struthiopteris. Hall. Enum. 132. 



Nat. Ord. see «. ^es. 



Masses of capstdes linear, narrow, straight, uninterrupted, 

 parallel and close to the midrib, at the back of each 

 segoient of the fertiley?-^?/^/^, at each side. Cove}- mem- 

 branous, linear, continuous, superficial, at a slight dis- 

 tance from the margin of the frond, separating at its inner 

 edge, towards the rib. Caps, numerous, stalked, glo- 

 bose, of 2 valves, bound by a transverse jointed ring. 

 Seeds numerous, minute. 



Root tufted. Fronds numerous, erect, rigid, pinnatifid, or 

 pinnate, the fertile ones narrowest. 



1. B. borcale. Northern Hard-fern. 



Frond smooth, pinnate, pectinate ; leaflets linear, entire, 

 scarcely dilated at the base. 



B. boreale. Sw.Syn.Fil.Ub. fVilld.Sp.Pl.v.5. 408. Fl.Br.]l35. 



Engl. Bot.v.\7.t.ll59. Hook. Scot. p. 2. 157. 

 Osmunda Spicant. Linn. Sp. PL 1522, Curt. Lond.fasc. 2. t. 67. 



Bolt. Fil. 8. t. 6. Fl. Don. t. 99. Hedw. Tlieor. 43. t. 5. Ehr/i. 



Crypt. 52. 



