374 FILICES. (Polypodium. 
Taylor’s Herbarium specimen is deserving of special con- 
sideration, it has not been seen there in a native state, nor 
indeed anywhere else in the south-west of Ireland, for many 
years past, and it seems better to regard it as now lost or 
extinct. That there is nothing in the climate of Kerry 
particularly repellent to this fern is shown by the success 
with which Archdeacon Wynne grew it for many years in 
his garden at Killarney where it was flourishing up to 
the time of his removal to Limerick about 1904. Although 
the Oak Fern occurs pretty commonly over the greater 
portion of England, Wales and Scotland, it is one of the very 
rarest ferns in Ireland, being certainly known from only 
four of the Irish counties, in three of which it occurs in but 
a single locality. ] 
OSMUNDA Linn. 
O. regalis Linn. Royal Fern. 
Districts I. TW. II. IV. V. Vi. VIL. VIII. IX. 
Native. Wet peaty ditches, boggy places, river- and lake- 
sides, &c. Common and often abundant. Peren. July— 
September. Calcifuge A. 
From sea-level, to 850 feet on the Reeks (Hart), to 900 
feet by the Roughty-Ballyvourney road, to 925 feet in the 
Slaheny valley (R.W.S.), and to 1,200 feet “in Kerry” 
(Druce). 
First record in 1756: Dr. Smith, Hist. of Kerry, pp. 376 & 
380, No. 35, “In several bogs in the barony of Iraghti- 
connor and elsewhere, ” and No. 73 ‘“‘in a marshy wood near 
Lixnaw.” 
The Royal Fern, like Lastrea dilatata and L. emula, grows 
in great profusion in many localities in the south of Kerry. 
Around the Lakes of Killarney especially it attains to large 
dimensions and may be seen in perfection along the Back 
Channel between the Meeting of the Waters and O’Sullivan’s 
Punch-bowl, where it gives an almost tropical luxuriance to 
the vegetation of this lovely spot. There, and elsewhere in 
the county, fronds five to six feet in height are not un- 
common 
Var. DEcompPosita Druery—II. Between Kenmare and 
Sneem in some plenty (Messrs. Boyd & Cowan) R.W.S., 
Irish Nat. 1902, p. 159. The discovery here of this new 
variety of the Osmunda is especially interesting as it appears 
to be a species that very rarely deviates from its typical state. 
The station given above is the only one at present on record 
for the British Isles, 
