FERNS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 43 



this fragrance, believed this to be the species designated 

 by Linnaeus Polypodium frdgrans. The mid-vein is very 

 perceptible in the blunt lobes of the pinnae. It is 

 slightly winding and alternately branched, some of the 

 branches being simple, others forked, and the clusters 

 of fructification are placed at their extremities. The 

 scales are so numerous at the lower part of the stipes as 

 to remind one of the pale brown shaggy mane of an 

 animal, and they are more or less continued to the 

 upper part. The underground stem is scaly, and the 

 roots numerous and tough. 



This fern grows throughout Europe, and is called by 

 various writers Aspidium Oredpteris, JPolypodAum Ore- 

 dpteris, Polypodium montdnum, Pol^stichum montdnum 

 or Lastrea montdna. 



3. L. rigida (Rigid Fern). — Fronds twice-pinnate ; 

 pinnules narrow, slightly pinnatifid; lohes serrated, 

 without spinous points to the teeth ; indusium perma- 

 nent, fringed with glands. Notwithstanding the rigid 

 nature of this species, which renders its green fronds 

 less graceful in attitude than some which bow more 

 readily to the winds, yet it is one of the most elegantly 

 formed of the genus, and it is clearly marked by the 

 beautiful divisions of its frond. It grows erect, rising 

 from a thick underground stem; the frond is annual, 

 appearing in May, and dying as soon as the early frosts 

 commence. It is usually one or two feet high, and in 

 various specimens assumes one of two forms. In the 

 one it is almost triangular ; in the other lanceolate. 

 It is twice pinnate, with narrow crowded pinnae, and 

 pinnules which axe blunt and oblong, and cut again 



