308 LABY FEEN. 



Genus. — Athybium. Caudex large, massive, persistent, its 

 growing extremity alwaj^s composed of a most obvious crown 

 of undeveloped fronds : pinnrn with the first upper pinnule as 

 large as or larger than the first lower, neither conspicuously 

 larger or longer than the second and succeeding pinnules : mid- 

 vein of each pinnule distinct ; lateral veins alternate, always 

 branched, running towards each tooth of an ultimate division, 

 but ceasing before its apex : clusters of capsules seated on the 

 anterior branch, and on the anterior side thereof, the line of 

 their attachment somewhat crescentic : involucre very constant 

 and distinct, its attachment also somcivhat crescentic, its anterior 

 margin raised, free, split into capillary segments. 



Species. — Fiiix-femina. Fronds lanceolate, pinnate, very 

 fragile, and early deciduous : pinnse pinnate. 



Polypodium Filix-femina, Linn. Sp. PI. lool ; Light/. Fl. 

 Scot. 673 ; Hucls. Fl. Ang. 458 ; With. Arr. 778. 



Polypodium Rhffiticum, Linn. Sp. PI. 1552. 



Polipodium Filix-femina, Bolt. Fil. Brit. 46, t. 25. 



Aspidium FUix-fcemina {Sicartz), and Aspidium irriguum, 

 Sm. E. F. iv. 295-6, E. B. 1459, and E. B. S. 2199. 



Asplenium Filix-foemina (Bernh.), Mack. Fl. Flib. 34 2; Hook, 

 and Am. 574. 



Athyrium Filix-fcemina {Roth), Newm. F. 420 ; Bab. 413. 



I have felt so great difficulty in giving, by a figure, any satis- 

 factory idea of the beauty of this fern, that I refrain from com- 

 ment on the failures of other depictors. The genus of the lady 

 fern has been a source of trouble and confusion to our bota- 

 nists. Lightfoot, Hudson, Withering, and Bolton make it a 

 Polypodium ; Smith, an Aspidium ; Hooker, an Asplenium ; 

 Babington, an Athyrium : and all, as I conceive, with equal 

 propriety. Filix-femina may readily be distinguished by its 

 elongate and somewhat sausage-shaped clusters of capsules, 

 covered by a similar- shaped involucre, with its fringed free 



