132 MOUNTAIN FEEN. 



the Highlands of Scotland, being, in many of the mountain 

 wilds, more common than Eupteris aqnilina ; it also abounds 

 in the hill districts of the North of England and Wales. It is 

 not, however, confined to hills, since we find it sparingly in all 

 our counties where there is waste ground : it approaches Lon- 

 don on all sides, occurring on Wimbledon Common, Hampstead 

 Heath, High Beech, and Blackheath. Notwithstanding its ap- 

 parent partiality for exposed and elevated districts, it grows 

 more beautifully and luxuriantly in woods, especially where 

 they are intersected by a little stream, on the banks of which it 

 will often be observed in profusion. At Houndsdown Bottom, 

 near Hindhead, in Surrey, it is particularly abundant and 

 luxuriant ; and the same is the case in Bridge Woods, near 

 Tunbridge Wells. 



In Ireland it is very sparingly distributed : I only observed 

 it in abundance in two spots, — near Milroy Bay in the county 

 Donegal, and near Glendalough in the county Wicklow. It 

 occurs sparingly in the Killarney district : Mr. Moore has ob- 

 served it in the county of Londonderry, and Mr. E. T. Bennett 

 in the county. Clare, by the roadside between Innistymon and 

 Corrafin ; and in the county Galway, between Dooghty and 

 Ma'am ; plentifully on the ascent of Ma'am Turc pass from the 

 Ma'am Hotel ; and near Letterfrank. 



The radicles of this fern are numerous, strong, tough, and 

 penetrating ; they appear to spread in every direction from a 

 large, scaly, tufted caudex, which yearly increases in magnitude. 

 In favourable situations, this sends forth thirty or forty fronds, 

 which spread with but little regularity round a common centre : 

 immediately these begin to unrol they exliibit the pinnse, placed 

 at right angles with the main rachis, and are not convolute, a 

 character worthy of particular notice, because unusual. The 

 fronds, when fully expanded, are very variable in size, depend- 

 ant chiefly on situation, but also in a great measure on the age 

 of the plant. An extraordinary number of seedlings are met 

 with where this fern is abundant : these, for two or three years, 

 bear little or no fruit, but after the third year fructification 



