394 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



wedge-shaped, entire lobes.— Hooker, Species Filicum, I, p. 64. Nicholson, 

 Dictionary of Gardening, iv., p. 216. Eaton, Ferns of North America, ii., 

 t. 60. Correvon, Les Fougeres rustiques, p. 68. 



W. guatemalensis— gua-tem-a-len'-sis (from Guatemala). Synonymous 

 with W. mollis. 



W. hyperborea— hyp-er-bor'-e-a (from the extreme North), R. Brown. 



This species, known also in gardens under the name of W. alpina, has 

 a remarkably wide range of habitat, being found in the Arctic regions and 

 on high mountains in the temperate zone in Europe, Asia, and America. 

 According to Lowe, it occurs in Sweden, Norway, Russia, Germany, France, 

 Switzerland, Spain, Hungary, Silesia, Siberia, &c, and also in the Punjab, on 

 the Himalayas. Eaton states, in "Ferns of North America" (vol. ii., p. 108), 

 that the limits of its habitat in British America have not been ascertained, and 

 that it grows in the northern parts of Vermont and New York. He adds, 

 "I am indebted to Mr. D. A. Watt for a very copious series of specimens 

 collected by himself on a moist, mossy bank near the Falls on the Riviere clu 

 Loup, and within reach of the spray from the Falls, in September, 1865, and 

 on moist, mossy banks in a ravine at Temiscouata, Canada East, 1868." Ray 

 mentions W. hyperborea as a British plant in the second edition of his 

 "Synopsis Stirpium Britannicarum " (published in 1696), where it is described 

 by Mr. Lhwyd, its discoverer, as " Filix alpina pedicularis rubrce foliis 

 subtus villosis " (Alpine Fern, with red-stemmed leaves hairy underneath). It 

 was also described and engraved during the same year in Plukenet's 

 " Almagestum Botanicum " (p. 150, t. 89, f. 8). Mr. Lhwyd says he never 

 saw it except on wet, lofty rocks called Clogwyn-y-Garnedh, near the top of 

 Snowdon, and that it was rare even there. It springs there from the edges of 

 the rocks, and is not erect, but somewhat reclining. Dr. Richardson adds, in 

 the third edition of the same "Synopsis," that "it grows on a moist, black 

 rock, almost at the top of Clogwyn-y-Garnedh, facing north-west, directly 

 above the lower lake." Besides the above-named locality, Lowe states that 

 this species " has been found in various places in Scotland, viz., by 

 Professor Balfour near Crieff, on Ben Chonzie, Perthshire ; also in Glen 

 Isla, Forfarshire ; and on Glen Fiadh, Clova Mountains. Mr. Dickson and 



