CYSTOPTERIS MYEEHIDIFOLIUM. 101 



The radicles are fibrous, black, and clothed with fibriUse : 

 the caudex is a brown stolon-like rhizome, which, when creep- 

 ing among moss in wet situations, especially on the ledges of 

 dripping rocks in mountain ravines, is almost constantly wet. 

 I am indebted to Mr. Westcombe for a portion of rhizome in a 

 living state, and have been successful in growing it in the me- 

 thod hereinafter described. From the rhizome the fronds rise 

 at irregular distances, each on a slender erect stipes, which is 

 somewhat longer than the frond, and has a few nearly diapha- 

 nous pointed scales scattered near the base, where it is brown, 

 the upper portion being green and concolorous with the frond : 

 the frond is nearly horizontal, being elbowed at its junction 

 with the stipes ; it is triangular in form, and pinnate ; the first 

 or lowest pair of pinnte being nearly opposite, and very much 

 larger than any of the others, indeed, nearly equalling in size 

 all the rest: these pianse are pinnate, the pinnules are also 

 pinnate ; the lobes are deeply pinnatifid, and their divisions 

 notched : it is, therefore, one of the most compound of our 

 ferns : the second pair of pinnae are nearly opposite, but the 

 remainder gradually become alternate. The first inferior pin- 

 nule of the lowest pair is very much larger and more divided 

 than the first superior pinnule of the same pair ; this dispro- 

 portion decreases gradually, until, at the apex of the pinna, its 

 opposite pinnules nearly correspond in size. All the specimens 

 found by Mr. Wilson, and all but one of those found by Mr. 

 Westcombe, were without fruit ; but this is an evident depar- 

 ture from the usual character of the fern, the entire under sur- 

 face being commonly covered with clusters of capsules. The 

 late lamented Mr. E. Forster very kindly lent me, for the pre- 

 sent work, a Swiss specimen, just in that state of incipient 

 fructification which best displays the involucre. The lateral 

 veins are alternate ; each generally ceases in a sinus between 

 two serratures : the involucre is attached at the back of each 

 lateral vein, and bends slightly forwards over the capsules ; it is 

 very unequal in size, and often entirely wanting ; its free ante- 

 rior margin is jagged and uneven. The masses of capsules 

 are nearly circular, and become very prominent when mature ; 



