124 MARSH FEEN. 



slightly longer than the second and following pinnules : ulti- 

 mate divisions without a point. 



Species. — Thelypteeis. Caudex a creeping rhizome : fronds 

 of two kinds, hoth erect, on long, smooth stipes, lanceolate, 

 pinnate : pinnse pinnatifid, lower pinnae scarcely equalling the 

 rest in length : pinnules blunt, entire, in fertile fronds with 

 convolute margins covering the capsules. 



SpfftipM, fyum, i'L 



Acrostichum Thelypteris, Li7m. Sp. PL 1528; Bolt. Fil. Brit. 

 part ii. 78, t. 43, 44 ; With. Bot. Arr. Veg. 649. 



Polypodium Thel3'pteris, Linn. Mant. 505 ; Huds. Fl. Ang. 

 457 ; With. Arr. 776. 



Polystichum Thelypteris, Roth, Fl. Germ. iii. 77. 



Aspidium Thelypteris {Swartz), Sm. E. F. iv. 285 ; Mack. 

 Fl. Hib. 340 ; Franc. 35 ; Hook, and Am. 569. 



Lastrea Thelypteris, Bory, Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat. vi. 588 ; 

 Neivm. N. A. 19, F. 183 ; Bab. 409 ; Moore, 98. 



Thelypteris palustris, Schott. Fil. 



Hemestheum Thelypteris, Newm. Phytol. App. xxii. 



It is rather a remarkable fact in connexion with the history 

 of this fern, that it has never been represented in ' English 

 Botany,' the figure which bears its name (Eng. Bot. 1018) 

 being, as already stated, evidently drawn from a specimen of 

 Gymnocarpium Phegopteris. Bolton made a somewhat similar 

 mistake, by figuring Lastrea Oreopteris in its stead, (Fil. tab. 

 22) ; but this he subsequently rectified, by repeating the species 

 under its proper name, (Id. tab. 43) : his second figure is a very 

 good one. 



Botanists seem unusually at variance as to the genus in 

 wliich this fern should be placed. Linneus, Bolton, Withering, 

 Hudson, and many others, made it an Acrostichum; then 

 all converted it into a Polypodium. Sir J. E. Smith, Sadler, 

 Hooker and Arnott, and many others, make it an Aspidium 

 Roth, DeCandoUe, Godet, Koch, Ledebour, and many others, 

 a Polystichum ; Bory, Presl, John Smith, Babington, and 

 many others, a Lastrea : a list of contrarieties that might rea- 

 dily be increased ten-fold, but which is sufficient to show that 



