84 FERNS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



find its deep green sprays making a light tracery over 

 some sloping hedgebank, on whicli the sunshine is not 

 interrupted by overshadowing boughs. More often,, 

 however, the old church tower or stone wall is enli- 

 vened by its clumps of slender fronds, or they give to 

 the ruin a touch of verdure ; and throughout the year we 

 may gather it from some shady rock, its evergreen fronds, 

 when in a thriving condition, becoming a foot in length. 

 The stalk is throughout the frond of a purplish glossy 

 black. The frond is dull green, its small pinnae are 

 of equal size, very numerous, and in some cases quite dis- 

 tinct, in others closely crowding on each other. They 

 are of a roundish oblong shape, and are attached by 

 a short stalk, wedge-shaped below, and formed as if a 

 piece had been cut off. The pinnae are jointed at the 

 main stalk of the frond, and when old, fall off and 

 leave it naked, numbers of the black glossy hair-like 

 stalks mingling with the green fronds. A mid-vein 

 in the pinna gives rise on each side to forked veins ; 

 and the hnear cluster of capsules is placed just within 

 the margin of the pinna, on that vein of the fork which 

 is nearest its upper part. These clusters are, when 

 young, covered by a thin indusium, with its margin free 

 and notched; but as they ripen, they sometimes run 

 into one mass, covering with their dark brown hue 

 almost all the under surface of the pinna, though more 

 frequently lying in two distinct portions, and leaving 

 the midrib uncovered. 



This fern is not subject to many varieties, except that 

 it differs greatly in the length of its fronds according 

 to the place of its growth. A form, however, termed 



