160 witheeing's fern. 



geographical range. I am indebted to Mr. Boott for two allied 

 but apparently distinct species from the United States. 



It appears to be ubiquitous in the moist woods of the South 

 of England, as far as I have had an opportunity of visiting 

 them. In Wales, it does not occur so commonly ; and I have 

 not yet seen a frond gathered in Scotland, and but one in Ire- 

 land: for this latter I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. 

 Lovett Darby, who gathered it at Dartrey, the seat of Lord 

 Cremorne, in the county Monaghan. I have no reason what- 

 ever for distrusting several informants of Scotch and Irish 

 stations, beyond the fact that this species is little known and 

 seldom recognized as distinct from L. multiflorum ; neither 

 can I urge any reason for its non-occurrence in Scotland and 

 Ireland. 



gwcrijjtiott. 



The radicles are nearly black, numerous, and often mat- 

 ted together : the caudex is stout, and gradually increases in 

 length, and becomes branched ; I have occasionally seen in 

 woods patches that occupied many square yards, and on dig- 

 ging amongst the fronds with a trowel, have found the tufts so 

 much connected with each other, as to justify the supposition 

 that each patch originally owed its existence to a single caudex. 

 The fronds rise from the ground in April and May, without any 

 symmetrical arrangement, and often exhibit the singular verna- 

 tion already described under L. multiflorum : the margins of the 

 unexpanded pinnae are somewhat convolute. The stipes is about 

 equal in length to the frond, and nearly erect ; it is clothed with 

 blunt or rounded, semitransparent, uniformly coloured scales, 

 each of which generally terminates in a feeble flexile awn. The 

 frond is slightly drooping, and quite eglandulose ; it is long, 

 narrow, pinnate and linear, the pairs of pinnae, from the first 

 to the eighth inclusive, being generally of uniform length; they 

 are rather distant, and usiially ascend at an acute angle from 

 the main rachis. The pinnae are pinnate, and the pinnules 

 detached and often distant ; although connected by a slender 

 wing, they have a deep notch on each side at the base. On 

 the first pair of pinnre the first and second inferior pinnules are 



