390 87. FILICES. 



England, and grows with a beauty and luxuriance that 

 I have not witnessed elsewhere : it is more generally- 

 distributed over the island than twihridgense " (Newman's 

 History). 



1409. OsMUNDA EEOALis, Linn. 



Area 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 * 15 16 17 18. 



South limit in Cornwall, Isle of Wight, Sussex. 



North limit in Shetland, Hebrides. 



Estimate of provinces 17. Estimate of counties 60. 



Latitude 50 — 61. British type of distribution. 



Agrarian region. Inferagrarian — Superagrarian zones. 



Descends to the coast level, in the Peninsula. 



Ascends to 100 or 200 yards, in England. 



Range of mean annual temperature 52 — 45. 



Native. Paludal, Sylvestral. The number of counties 

 in which this very conspicuous fern has been recorded 

 or observed, according to my compilation of notes, scarcely 

 exceeds 50 ; and in two or three of these (example, Mid- 

 dlesex and Cambridge) it would seem to have become 

 extinct. Several other counties (example, Cardigan and 

 Ayr) would appear very likely to produce it ; so that an 

 estimate of 60 may eventually be found nearer truth than 

 50 would be. Decidedly more western than eastern in its 

 census. In the pamphlet on Ferns, published by Mr. 

 Newman, as an 'A^jpendixto the Phytologist for 1851,' 

 it is stated that " in addition to the descriptions and 

 synonymes, the geographical range of the species in Bri- 

 tam is also given." All that is said on the "range" of 

 this species is comprised in four words, "Wet places, 

 very local." These four words read to me simj)ly as an 

 item of mis-information in regard to the area and census 



