258 87. FILICES. 



of England, with a few outlying stations on the much 

 lower hills of the Severn and Peninsula. According to a 

 Report from the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, this 

 fern was found by Mr. Ward in the county of Devon ; but 

 as that report may really intend Mr. Ward's locality of 

 Simmonsbath in Somerset, the county of Devon is dis- 

 carded here for want of more trustworthy authority than 

 the Reports of the Society mentioned. The province of 

 Trent requires confirmation ; but one of its counties, 

 Derby, reported by Mr. Howard in the Botanist's Guide, 

 is sufficiently probable to be retained here ; that of Rut- 

 land (Mr. Jackson, in With. Arr.) is much less probable. 

 Scarcely to be considered a plant of the midagrarian zone. 



1379. Cystopteris fragilis, Bernh. 

 1379, b. Cystopteris dentata, Hook. 

 1379, c. Cystopteris angustata, " Sm." 



Cystopteris Dickieana, {Sim) Newm. 



Area general. 



South limit ia Devon, Dorset, Sussex. 



North limit in Hebrides, Sutherland. 



Estimate of provinces 18. Estimate of counties 70. 



Latitude 50 — 59. British tj^De of distribution. 



A. A. regions. Inferagrarian — Midarctic zones. 



Descends to the coast level, or nearly so, in Peninsula. 



Ascends to 1050 yards, in East Highlands. 



Range of mean annual temperature 49 — 36. 



Native. Rupestral. Rare in the southern, and espe- 

 cially the south-eastern provinces of England ; becomi n g 

 much more frequent northwards, and among the moun- 

 tains. It is thus an example of the British passing into 

 the Highland type. Opinions differ much as to whether 



