A Dictionary of Choice Ferns 
327 
^ OODSl A—co7itimied. 
in the temperate zone in Europe, Asia, and America. The 
fronds, narrowly spear-shaped, pinnate, and 2in. to Gin. 
long, are abundantly produced from a clustered rootstock, 
hidden by a mass of stalk-bases, which persist long after 
the fronds have fallen off. The stalks are articulated, and, 
like the midrib of the leafy portion, slightly hairy beneath. 
The somewhat triangular leaflets are deeply cleft into 
roundish or egg-shaped lobes of a pale green colour. 
Fig 124. Woodsia ilvensis, one of the rarest of British Ferns, 
but one that has a very wide range of habitat. 
W. ilvensis. 
Like the foregoing species, this has a very wide range 
of habitat; in fact, in that respect it is very similar to 
W, hyperhorea, and, like that species also, it is one of 
the rarest of British Ferns. The spear-shaped fronds 
(Fig. 124), 2in. to Gin. long and pinnate, are produced from 
a clustered rootstock. They are provided with etalklese, 
blunt, oblong leaflets, broader at the base, slightly hairy 
above, and deeply cleft into many oblong, obscurely-toothed 
lobes of a dull green colour. The rachis and the secondary 
midribs have their under-side clothed with reddish, chaffy 
scales. 
