126 



BRITISH FERNS 



Fig. 115. BleehtimiL spit-a.nl 

 (pinnce). 



BLECHNUM SPICANT (The Hard Fern) (Plate XII). 

 This evergreen species is the only one representing in this country 

 a very extensive genus which, though closely allied and very similar 

 in appearance to the genus Lomaria, is so definitely differentiated 

 from it in the particular feature upon which botanists most depend 

 for generic determination, i.e. the form of fructification, that we 

 cannot possibly class it therewith. Both produce two forms of 

 fronds, one barren and one fertile, the 

 latter growing erect and being very much 

 narrowed in their divisions, these practi- 

 cally bearing merely modified pinnae, only 

 sufficiently wide to carry the two lines of 

 spore capsules, while the barren ones are 

 leafy and more or less decumbent or 

 drooping. In Lomaria, however, the very 

 edges of the modified pinna? serve as pro- 

 tection to the spore capsules by turning 

 backwards and in the young stage covering 

 them. In Blechnmn, however, this is not the case, the lines of 

 capsules lie well within the margin, which is not reflexed to protect 

 them, as there is an independent indusium or cover for that 

 purpose. In one variety, B. anomalum, not very infrequently 

 found, this difference is accentuated since all the fronds are wide 

 and leafy, but in some the fructification is formed near the midrib, 

 with a wide, leafy space between it and the pinna margin which 

 could not obviously occur on Lomaria lines. 



We have taken some pains to make this difference clear, because, 

 curiously enough, some botanists of the highest standing name our 

 native Blechnum " Lomaria," and the latter name still obtains at 

 Kew on that account. Britten, in his European Ferns, gives clear 

 illustrations of the difference, and the late Dr. Masters, to whom 

 we submitted specimens in conjunction with a protest against an 

 obvious misnomer, fully justified our contention, as indeed must 

 every one who will ascertain the difference as accepted by the 

 selfsame botanists, and then examine the plants themselves. The 

 fronds of Blechnum spicant are deep green, very tough and leathery, 

 whence the name of Hard Fern, and has only once-divided fronds 

 in its normal state, vide Fig. 115 and other illustrations for this and 

 general make. The erect fertile fronds range from a foot to nearly 

 three feet in height, and the barren ones, about two-thirds the 

 length, form a lax, spreading rosette, from the centre of which the 

 fertile ones arise. It is a very common Fern in many districts, but 

 affects moist habitats on hedgebanks, the vicinity of streams, damp 

 woods, and also, in hilly districts, is found amongst the heather. 

 Its pet antipathy is lime, and under culture rain water is an essential 

 to successful growth. A compost of friable loam with a plentiful 



