176 RIGID FERN. 



Genus. — Lophodium. (See page 136). 



Species. — Rigidum. Caudex tufted : stipes much shorter 

 than the frond, densely clothed with broad reddish brown 

 scales : frond semierect, glandulose, sweet-scented, lanceolate, 

 pinnate : pinnae very numerous : pinnules oblong, obtuse, ser- 

 rated, scarcely mucronate : involucre flat, its free margin 

 fringed with stalked glands : clusters of capsules very crowded, 

 covering the pinnules, confined to the upper part of the frond. 



Polypodium fragrans, Linn. Sp. PI. 1089, (1st edition); Huds. 

 Fl. Ang. 388, (1st edition) ; With. Arr. 650 ; Vill. Hist. 

 PI. Dauph. iii. 843. 



Polypodium rigidum, Hoffm. Deutschl. Fl. ii. 16. 



Polystichum strigosum. Both, Fl. Germ. iii. 86. 



Aspidium rigidum, Schkuhr, p. 40, tab. 38 ; Hook. E. B. S. 

 2734 ; Franc. 40; Hook, and Am. 569. 



Lastrea rigida, Newm. N. A. 19, F. IQl; Bab. 411 ; Moore, 

 111, (excl. the figure). 



Lophodium rigidum, Newm. Phytol. App. xxi. 



There are but few figures of this fern : that in Schkuhr is 

 admirable; those in ' English Botany ' and Francis's 'Analy- 

 sis ' are not to be spoken of in terms of praise. 



With regard to the name of this fern I have long suspected 

 we are in error. I am quite inclined to believe it identical with 

 that originally described as Polypodium fragrans by Linneus. 

 The first description by Linneus answers well for the present 

 plant : — " Fronds sub-bipinnate lanceolate, pinnules crowded, 

 their lobes obtuse, serrated, stalk scaly," (Sp. Plant. 1089, ed. 

 1) ; and he adds, as if to enforce the character of the serrated 

 lobes : — "It has the habit of Filix-mas, but is much less, the 

 pinnules are more thickly crowded, their lateral lobes obtuse 

 and more deeply serrated," (Id. 1. c.) Linneus also quotes 

 Amman's " Dryopteris rubum ideeum spirans," which is an ex- 

 cellent description of this species : and the Linnean authentic 



