PERNS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 51 



with the margin uneven or jagged, and set round about 

 with small glands without stalks. The whole plant is 

 covered with minute glandular bodies, giving it a pecu- 

 liar fragrance. The frond is of beautiful rich green hue, 

 and its woody stalk is of dark purple colour. This fern 

 is the Lastrea recwrva, or the Nethrddium Fcemsecii of 

 botanists, and is also by some regarded as a variety of 

 L.dilatdta or L.spinuldsa. It is abundant in Ireland 

 and the western counties of England, and found more or 

 less throughout the kingdom. 



6. L. cristdta (Crested Eern). — Fronds lanceolate and 

 pinnate ; pinna deeply pinnatifid ; segments acutely and 

 doubly serrate. This fern is found among the Ung and 

 heaths of boggy lands, and is much sought for on 

 account of its rarity, though it is less attractive in 

 appearance than many other species. It occurs but in 

 four counties of England, and is found at Bawsey Heath, 

 near Lynn ; at Fritton, and Dersingham, and Edgefield, 

 in Norfolk ; on Woolston Moss, near Warrington, 

 Lancashire ; on Oxton Bogs, Nottinghamshire ; on 

 Wybunbury Bog in Cheshire j and a few other similar 

 locahties. It has a thick underground stem, branching 

 in various directions, from which, in May, the narrow 

 fronds rise, always in most remarkably erect form, 

 narrowing towards the upper part, though being rounded 

 and not pointed at the top. The frond is about two 

 feet high, the stalk being rather more than a third of 

 the length of the whole frond, and having towards its 

 base a few chafiy bluntly egg-shaped scales, which are 

 always of pale brown colour. The pinnae of the frond 

 are narrow and triangular in their outline, those at the 



