IT; HNS AJND 110SS.KS. 117 
plants of larger growth, ferns are the first to dwell beside 
them. Such is often the case with the Tunhridge filmy- 
fern, the Ilymenopliyllum Tunbridf/ense of Smith and 
Hooker, of Mackay, Gray, and Francis, the Trichomanes 
Tunbriilycnse, or Tunhridge golden-locks of Linnteus, Hud- 
son, Withering, Bolton, and Light-foot. 
In England the localities of this singular fern are moist 
clefts of rocks, and stony places, growing somewhat 
luxuriantly on the high rocks of Tunb ridge Wells ; it also 
embellishes the coast of Sussex, and is found among the 
pebbles at Cockbush. Many a rushing torrent on Dartmoor 
reflects its winged leaves ; and botanists speak of it as 
being not unfrequent on. the mountains of the north. Mr. 
Aiken gathered it from crags in a shady dell near Llan- 
herris ; Mr. Winch from beside the tumbling falls of the 
dread Lodore ; another botanist at the Cil-hepstc Waterfall, 
near Pont-nedd-vechan, and on Brincous in the vicinity of 
jS'eath, Glamorganshire. Variety the 2nd, with fructifica- 
tions on naked fruit- stalks, is not unfrequent on rocks 
beneath Dolbaden Castle, near the lake of Llanberris, and 
on. the rock called Foalfoot, on Ingleborough in Yorkshire. 
The Tunbridge filmy-fern is presumed to be as yet un- 
known in Wales and Scotland. But Ireland owns it in 
various romantic localities, in the counties of Galway and 
Kerry, Cork and Wicklow. Those who visit the Lakes of 
Killarney may find it spreading over the rocks in great 
beauty and luxuriance. 
The roots are black, wiry, and slender ; the rhizoma 
creeping, wiry, slender, long, and black. The fronds con- 
sist of a branched series of veins, each one being clothed 
with a membranous or filmy wing ; the branches or pinna? 
are alternate, more or less subdivided ; the subdivisions or 
pinnula? are mostly in pairs, the margin of the wing is cre- 
nated, and very minxitely spiny ; the masses of thecoe are 
in flat marginal receptacles, situated at the union of the 
