87. FILICES. 273 



1393. Athyrium Filix-fcemina, Roth. 



Area general. 



South limit in Cornwall, Isle of Wight, Kent. 



North limit in Shetland, Orkney, Hebrides. 



Estimate of provinces 18. Estimate of counties 83. 



Latitude 50 — 61. British type of distribution. 



A. A. regions. Inferagrarian — Inferarctic zones. 



Descends to the coast level, in the Peninsula. 



Ascends to 550 yards, or upwards, in East Highlands. 



Range of mean annvial temperature 52 — 41. 



Native. Sylvestral, Rupestral, &c. A very general 

 fern, seldom confounded with anj^thing else. The disco- 

 very, however, that Polypodium alpestre is a native of the 

 Highland mountains, and had been found and dubiously 

 labelled " Asp. Filix-foemina " some years ago, will now 

 suggest doubts about the trvie upper limit of the Athyrium 

 Filix-foemina, which accordingly is here given lower than 

 my notes would otherwise indicate. For a fern which is 

 so thoroughly an example of the British or general type, 

 the Athyrium is remarkably impatient of frost ; old fronds 

 early in the autumn, equally as the young fronds late in 

 the spring, being seared and destroyed by even slight 

 frosts, such as scarcely affect several of the Calceolarise, 

 Salvise, Pelargonia, and other greenhouse plants. In the 

 ' Appendix to the Phytologist for 1851 ', Mr. Newman dis- 

 tinguishes this into four species, — ovatum, molle, incisum, 

 convexum. The three latter are familiar and passably 

 well marked varieties, perhaps even species. The first of 

 the four is the Athyiium Filix-foemina var. latifoHum of 

 Babington's Manual. To my eyes it appears more cor- 

 rectly to be designated a casual variation, or even mon- 

 voii. m. 2 N 



