JVoODS/A. 
5 
This little fern, as its specific name hyperborea expresses, is truly northern in its range. 
This is, however, very wide, extending round the boreal world in Europe, Asia, and America. 
In Europe it is especially found in the highest latitudes, and when it occurs further south 
it is only at lofty elevations. It is frequent throughout Norway, the northern part of Sweden, 
Lapland, Finland, and North Russia, growing in the crevices of exposed granitic and basaltic 
rocks. It does not occur in calcareous districts. In the mountain ranges of Europe the 
Woodsia is a scarce species, though locally abundant in a few spots. In the Alps it occurs 
in several places, as on Mont Cenis, Mont St. Gothard, Zermatt, the Upper Engadine, &c. ; 
in the Tyrol it is found in abundance at the Seiser Alp and in the Oetzthal ; and in the 
Pyrenees in two spots, one on the Maladetta. There are also isolated localities in Carinthia 
and Silesia, and the plant also grows in the mountains of Corsica and Sardinia. 
In the British Isles this is one of our rarest species, and there are but three localities. 
One of these was known so long ago as about 1680 — the moist rocks of Clogwyn y Garnedd, 
facing the east on one of the highest points of Snowdon, North Wales. There it was first 
discovered by Mr. Lhwyd (from whom there is a specimen in Buddie's herbarium in the 
British Museum), and it still grows there. Mr. Newman refers Lhwyd’s plant to the next 
species; but so far as can be judged from the specimen just alluded to, which is imperfect, it 
is W. hyperborea. The other two localities are in Scotland — on Ben Lawers, Perthshire, and 
in Glen Isla, in the Clova Mountains of Forfarshire. The similarity of the fronds to the leaves 
of the common Red-Rattle (P edicidaris sylvatica ) has often been noticed, and the resemblance 
is embodied in the original name given to the Snowdon plant by Lhwyd. 
Beyond the boundaries of Europe, W. hyperborea grows in the Ural Mountains, in the 
Songarian district, the Amur and Manschuria, and extends as far as Mongolia and Northern 
China. These Asiatic forms have been named as distinct species by Russian botanists ( IV. 
piloseUa, Rupr., W. asplenioides, Rupr., and W. subcordata , Turcz). There is also a southward 
extension of the range of the plant in the Himalaya Mountains. In America the species is 
confined to high northern latitudes, only occurring in Canada as far as the Saskatchawan, 
and not reaching southwards into the United States. It has been doubtfully recorded for 
Iceland, but does not occur in Greenland. 
WOODSIA ILVENSIS, Brown. 
Whether there are sufficient grounds to justify the position of this as a distinct species 
from W. hyperborea is a question upon which the best authorities are not in accord. It is 
certainly difficult at times to decide to which a given specimen may belong, and intermediates 
seem to occur, but usually the two are readily separable. Brown, who founded the genus, 
though he followed the general opinion in keeping the two species, expresses himself as more 
inclined to consider them varieties of one ; Milde combines them, and calls W. hyperborea 
(Brown) by the name var. arvonica, whilst IV. ilvensis (Brown) is called var. rufidtlla, these 
being old specific names restored. On the other hand, Sir J. E. Smith thought them quite 
distinct species, and they are retained as such in Hooker and Baker's “ Synopsis Filicum.” 
Mr. H. C. Watson reports a circumstance which, if correct, would settle the question — that a 
portion of a plant of true IV. hyperborea, sent from the Botanic Garden at Edinburgh to Professor 
Arnott, ultimately turned out to be IV. ilvensis. 
The present species is, on the whole, a decidedly larger plant than W. hyperborea (some 
of the American specimens are Very much so), the fronds frequently measuring eight inches 
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