CYSTOPTEMS FEAGLLIS. 91 



shire, Wiltshire and 8omersetshii-e : it has a few scattered localities in 

 Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and 

 Devonshire; and in Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, 

 Essex, Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Dorsetshire, it is said to have been found 

 here and there on churches and in villages. 



Wai.es. — Frequent, more especially in hilly regions, both North and 

 South. 



Ireland. — Generally a rare fern : it occurs, however, in immense pro- 

 fusion about Shgo, and also in some parts of Kerry ; and is reported from 

 Antrim, Down, Leitrim, Wicklow, and Cork. 



The radicles are numerous, black, and wiry : the caudex is 

 elongated horizontally but very slowly, the extremity always 

 having a vertical position, and terminating in a crown of unex- 

 panded fronds. The fronds begin to unfold early in the spring, 

 and appear very evanescent, generally arriving at maturity in 

 a few weeks ; a constant succession of fronds is produced 

 throughout the summer and autumn, but all disappear with the 

 first frosts of winter. The general form of the frond is lanceo- 

 late and pinnate : the pinnae are also pinnate ; but beyond this 

 they appear to possess no character in common. The length 

 of the stipes is very various. The lateral veins are alternate, 

 and each is usually divided into three or four branches, one 

 extending to every serrature in each lobe of the pinnule. The 

 lower detached figure in the cut at page 87, represents a pin- 

 nule, showing the veins and poiats of attachment of the cap- 

 sules ; the figure immediately above it represents a lobe of the 

 same pinnule : almost every vein bears a cluster of capsules 

 near its extremity ; the cluster is nearly circular, and has a 

 loose, white, membranous involucre, attached on one side only, 

 beneath the capsules ; its margin, at the farthest extremity 

 from its attachment, is striated, and becomes split into capil- 

 lary segments, or sometimes torn in a ragged manner, and at 

 length entirely disappears : the clusters of capsules rapidly in- 

 crease in size, frequently becoming confluent, as represented at 

 page 87, where the apex of a frond, with confluent clusters, is 

 shown towards the upper right hand of the cut. In cultivation, I 



