POLYPODIUM DRYOPTERIS. 85 



branaceous, brilliant green in colour, the branches pinnate or 

 sub-bipinnate, pinnae deeply pinnatifid, opposite. Frond three- 

 branched. Pinnules oblong-obtuse, crenate, less divided and 

 smaller as they approach the apex. Veins simple or forked. 



Sori small, circular, scattered over the whole of the under 

 side of the frond; numerous. 



The fronds are from four to fourteen inches in length. The 

 stipes occupying two-thirds of this length. They grow upright, 

 slender, are tinged with purple, very brittle, smooth, and with 

 few scales. 



Rachis smooth. 



Rhizoraa creeping, much branched. 



Both this species and the next are easily propagated by 

 divisions of the rhizoma. 



I have collected this Fern near Matlock, and in great profusion 

 on Longridge Fell, Lancashire. 



It is in the Fern catalogues of Sim, of Foot's Cray; Osborn 

 and Sons, of Fulham; Kennedy, of Covent Garden; A. Hen- 

 derson, of Pine-apple Place; E. G. Henderson, of St. John's 

 Wood; Parker, of Holloway; Rollisson, of Tooting; J. Veitch, 

 Jun., of Chelsea; Bass and Brown, of Sudbury, Suffolk; E. 

 Cooling, Derby; and Pearson, of Chilwell, near Nottingham. 



The illustration is from a plant in my own collection, procured, 

 several years ago from W. Winstanley, Esq., at Chaigeley Manor, 

 Lancashire. 



