CRYPTOGAMIA— FILICES. Pteris. S19 



angular and sharp-edged, wounding the hands severely if plucked 

 incautiously. When cut across, the pith has a branched ap- 

 pearance, resembling' a spread-eagle, whence the latin name. 



The variety /3 is singularly delicate, with rounded, more distant, 

 barren leaflets or segments, and very slender stalks. Dillenius 

 says it once grew on a wall in Chelsea garden, where by send- 

 ing down roots into the ground, it acquired the proper appear- 

 ance of this species. 



This common Fern is impatient of severe cold in the spring, and its 

 curled scaly shoots will scarcely bear any frost, though its natural 

 situation is often the most exposed and bleak possible. The 

 roots are generally killed by transplantation. 



2. P. crispa. Curled, or Rock, Brakes. 



Frond twice or thrice pinnate ; barren leaflets wedge- 

 shaped, cut; fertile elliptic-oblong, obtuse, convex. 



P. crispa. Linn. Ms. in his own Sp. PI. ] 522. With. 764. HuU243. 



Fl. Br. 1137. Engl. Bot. v. 17. t. 1 160. Hook. Scot. p. 2. 156. 



fVilld. Sp. PI. V. 5. 395 ; omitting J. Bavhin's synonym, referred 



above to Cystea regia. 

 P. Stelleri. "Amman in the New Petersburgh Trans. 12. t. 12. /. 1." 



Willdenow. 

 Osmunda crispa. Linn. Sp. PL 1522. Huds. 450. Light/. 655. 



Bolt. Fd. 10. t. 7. FL Dan. t. 496. 

 Onoclea crispa. Roth. Germ. v. Z. 39. 

 Adiantum album crispum alpinum. Raii Syn. 126. 

 A. album floridum. Pluk. Almag. 9. Phyt. t. 3.f. 2. 

 Filix botryitis minima, sive Filicula petrsea florida anglica, foliis 



plurifarikm divisis. Moris, v. 3. 593. sect. 14. t. 4.f. 4. 



In open stony mountainous situations. 



On the sides of mountains in Westmoreland, Scotland and Wales, 

 in dry stony ground, not uncommon. 



Perennial. July. 



Root moderately creeping, dark brown, with many fibres. Fronds 

 annud, tufted, erect, smooth, from six to twelve inches high, 

 of a bright pea-green hue, and an elegant feathery aspect j 

 their stalks long, pale, polished. Barren ones twice or thrice 

 pinnate, with small, wedge-shaped, obtuse, flat, alternate, 

 stalked leaflets, more or less deeply notched, or jagged. Fertile 

 rather taller, thrice pinnate, with elliptic-oblong, narrower, 

 undivided, turgid, likewise stalked, leaflets, whose broad, 

 brown, wavy, crenate, reflexed margins nearly meet over the 

 midrib, and cover the two linear dense masses of capsules, 

 which, as far as I can discern in dried specimens, are unaccom- 

 panied by any opposite or internal membrane. 



A few species from the north-west coast of America, and from 



