44 PERNS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



into broad rounded serrated lobes, without spinous tips. 

 The stalk is short, very full of scales ; and, like the last 

 species, this has a pleasant fragrance, arising from the 

 minute stalked glands which are scattered over it, though 

 the odour is very different from that of the Mountain 

 Fern. The mid-vein of the pinnules of the Rigid Fern 

 is waved; branched veins issuing alternately from it, 

 each becoming forked almost immediately, on leaving 

 the mid-vein. The lower branch divides again, each of 

 the lesser branches running into a segment of the lobe. 

 The upper branch — that is, the branch nearest the top 

 of the frond — bears the circular clusters of fructification 

 about half-way between the mid-vein and the margin, 

 thus forming in an early stage two lines, one on each 

 side of the mid-vein and parallel with it. The clusters 

 are crowded, and gradually mingle into one mass, 

 each being covered by its lead-coloured kidney-shaped 

 indusium, attached by a short stalk, and which is present 

 at every stage of the plant. This fern grows at some 

 elevation on the limestone mountains of the north of 

 England, and seems almost entirely confitied to their 

 Bcighbourhood. At Ingleborough in Yorkshire, it is 

 frequent; and on some of the Lancashire hills it 

 grows in thick, compact masses in wonderful profusion. 

 Mr. Finder, in writing to Mr. Newman, says — " I met 

 with Lastrea rigida in great profusion along the whole 

 of the great scar limestone district, at intervals between 

 Arnside Knot, where it is comparatively scarce, and 

 Ingleborough, being most abundant on Hutton Roof 

 crags and Farlton Knot, where it grows in the deep 

 fissures of the natural platform, and occasionally high in 



