66 IBRNS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



it to be identical with the Continental species. Its 

 fronds, which are very numerous, grow in tufts. They 

 are usually about four or five inches high, but are some- 

 times twice that height, appearing in May, but, like 

 their equally dehcate congeners, dying away with the 

 earliest frosts of autumn. The lanceolate frond is twice 

 pinnate, and the pinnules are often so deeply pinnatifid 

 as to be almost distinct. The branches, which are 

 nearly opposite, with a winged rachis, are egg-shaped, 

 and divided into bluntly egg-shaped pinnules, these 

 pinnules being again cut down almost to the mid-vein 

 into short blunt lobes, which are partly cloven, and 

 slightly toothed at the end. The mid-vein of the pin- 

 nules is distinct and nearly straight, with a side vein, 

 either simple or divided, issuing into each lobe, one 

 branch extending to the point of each marginal serra- 

 ture. Numerous rounded clusters of capsules he near 

 the margin, covered with their hooded indusia. 



This fern has been called Cystopteris regia, Cyathea 

 reyia, or Cyathea indsa, Cystea regia, Polypddium alpi-. 

 num, P. trijidum, or Aspidium regium. 



8. Athyrium. 



1. Athyrium Mlix famina (The Lady Pern). — ¥rond 

 lanceolate, twice pinnate ; pinnules deeply cut or pinna- 

 tifid ; lobes sharply toothed. This fern, whose graceful 

 attitude and elegant outline won for it its distinctive 

 name, is indeed the loveliest of all our larger ferns. It 

 grows abundantly, in many sheltered and moist woods, 

 attaining there its greatest luxuriance, and its somewhat 

 pale green fronds arising in such places to the height of 



