270 87. FiLiCES. 



1391. Lastrea dilatata, Presl. 

 1391, b. Lastrea glandulosa, Newm. 



Area general. 



South limit in Cornwall, Isle of Wight, Kent. 

 y04>/fe*J 'North limit in Orkney, Hebrides, Sutherland. 



Estimate of provinces 18. Estimate of counties 80. 



Latitude 50 — 60. British type of distribution. 



A. A. regions. Inferagrarian — Superarctic zones. 



Descends to the coast level, in the Peninsula. 



Ascends to 1150 or 1200 yards, in East Highlands. 



Range of mean annual temperature 52 — 35. 



Native. Sylvestral, Evipestral. A common fern ; and 

 apparently so much more frequent than L. spiiiulosa, that 

 the stations may almost always be rightly assigned to the 

 present species, when either name has been used for the 

 two species indiscrimmately. Examples from the low 

 grounds of the south of England differ much in outline 

 and division from the small examples found high up the 

 Highland mountains ; but these differences do not appear 

 adequate for specific diagnosis. Even at equal elevations, 

 there are differences among the plants which have been 

 pronounced specific ; as in the instance of L. glandulosa 

 of Newman, a species founded upon a solitary plant of 

 L. dilatata (as it would appear) observed by Mr. Purchas 

 in Dean Forest, Gloucestershire. I am indebted to Mr. 

 Purchas for a frond from that x^lant, which is certainly 

 remarkable by its decidedly glandular character ; but I 

 possess other specimens which appear to connect it with 

 the more usual form of L. dilatata, particularly one from 

 Titterstone Clee Hills, labelled by Mr. Edwin Lees doubt- 

 fully "Aspidium rigidum ?" This specimen is in bad 



