156 



BENNETT S FEEX. 



its position vertical ; its crown very smooth, of a pale whitish 

 brown colour, composed of undeveloped fronds, which are co- 

 vered with pale, rounded, concolorous, closely appressed scales: 

 stipes notably shorter than the frond, densely covered at the 

 base, more sparingly upwards, with large, flat, nearly round, 

 concolorous scales : fronds very large, semierect, arranged sym- 

 metrically round a centre ; every part of their under surface, 

 mcluding the general and partial rachides, so densely covered 

 with minute stalked glands, as to convey a most evident ap- 

 pearance of mealiness to the eye, and of roughness and sticki- 

 ness to the touch. The fronds are pinnate ; the pinnules are 

 lobed and serrated, and the teeth of the serratures mucrom,te. 

 The involucres have stalked glands on their edge, and a .''ew 

 occasionally, not constantly, on their disk. 



I am by no means anxious to obtain specific rank for this 

 fern : like Polystichum angulare, Amesium germanicum, and 

 one or two others, it presents just such characters as produce 

 different effects on different minds; in its symmetrical arrange- 

 ment of fronds it resembles L. multiflorum ; but in the pale 

 appearance of the crown, and the outline and colour of the 

 scales, it differs widely from the normal form of that species : 

 again, in its remarkable glandulosity it recedes from spino- 

 sum more strikingly than any other species of the genus Lo- 

 phodium ; the symmetrical arrangement of fronds, the strictly 

 tufted character of the caudex, and its very large size, are fur- 

 ther objections to its being united with that species. 



€\xllm. 



This handsome fern grows luxuriantly in peat, with an ad- 

 mixture of leaf-mould ; it retains every peculiarity, and repro- 

 duces itself readily from seed. Cultivated side by side with 

 multiflorum and spinosum, under circumstances calculated to 

 produce the greatest state of luxuriance and vigour, it remains 

 notably distinct from both. In a greenhouse it requires a very 

 large pot ; a rich vegetable soil intermixed with peat ; abun- 

 dance of water, and good drainage. 



