BLECHNUM SPICANT. 19 



is a much more difficult matter to settle. I believe that 

 Withering was the first author who ventured to transfer this 

 species from the Linnean genus Osmunda to the Lianean genus 

 Blechnum, an alteration made, according to its author, " in 

 compliance with the opinion of Dr. Smith and Mr. Robson." 

 The name thus became Blechnum spicant ; and, ten years sub- 

 sequently, the change was adopted by Swartz (Syn. Fil. (1806), 

 p. 115), as regards the genus, and the specific name altered from 

 spicant to boreale. Willdenow, in his 'Species Plantarum,' 

 instituted the genus Lomaria, but retained the present species 

 under the genus Blechnum ; while Desvaux, Presl, Sadler, and 

 other authors of good repute, referred to Willdenow's new 

 genus the species now under consideration, and restored the 

 Linnean name to the species, calling the plant Lomaria spicant. 

 Immediately after the publication of my first edition, the same 

 name was published by Mr. J. Smith in the ' Journal of Botany ' 

 (iv. 106) ; and it was subsequently adopted (1841) by the com- 

 pilers of the Edinburgh ' Catalogue of British Plants : ' but a 

 careful examination of the characters of the two genera, as de- 

 fined by their respective authors, induces me to conclude that 

 they are absolutely identical, and I therefore revert to the 

 Linnean name, in accordance with the views of "Withering, 

 Roth (Fl. Germ. iii. 44), Koch (Syn. ed. 2. p. 984), Fries (Sum. 

 Veg. Scand. p. 83), DeCandoUe (Flore Fr. ii. 551), and Lede- 

 bour (Fl. Ross. p. 521). 



The Hard Fern occurs in every European list, and has been 

 found in Northern Africa : it has also been recorded as a native 

 of North America, but I have met with no satisfactory evidence 

 on this subject; and it is absent from collections which have 

 been most obligingly sent me, from different localities, by Mr. 

 Boott, Mr. Lea, and Mr. Oakes. It is almost universally dis- 

 tributed throughout Great Britain, in woods, on commons, 

 heaths, and aU uncultivated ground: it is fond of moisture, 

 and prefers clayey and gravelly soil : on chalk it is rarely met 

 with. I do not recollect having seen a specimen from the challi 

 hills of Kent, Sussex, or Surrey. 



