6 
European Ferns. 
in length, or even more ; the stipes and fronds are usually more densely provided with paleae, 
and arc indeed sometimes quite shaggy from their abundance. In outline, the fronds are 
broader in the middle and lower part (more lanceolate) than in the last species, and the 
pinnae are usually considerably longer and divided into oblong or oval longer segments. In 
other respects the two species are similar. 
The localities of this fern are quite similar to those of W. hyperborea , but it is more 
frequently met with, and has a wider distribution. In Great Britain, for instance, we have 
seven or eight stations for it. Besides the three given under the last species — all of which 
produce this also — the plant occurs in several places near Moffat, Dumfriesshire, and on the 
border of that county and Peebles ; it also extends into England, being found on the rocks 
at Falcon Clints, in Teesdale, Durham (a locality remarkable for its Alpine flora at a low 
elevation), and in AVestmoreland. In Wales, it was recently discovered on Cader Idris, by 
Mr. James Backhouse. 
In Northern Europe this fern is frequent through the Scandinavian peninsula, and extends 
into the Arctic regions, reaching Nova Zemlia and Iceland. It belts the polar regions, occur- 
ring in Greenland and Labrador, the northern parts of Canada, reaching to Unalashka, Alaska, 
and, crossing into Kamptschatka, extends through Siberia and Russia. In more temperate 
regions it has a wide distribution in the mountain districts of Europe, Asia, and America. 
It does not seem to occur, however, in the Swiss Alps, nor in the Pyrenees, but is found in 
Tyrol and Hungary ; and there are stations for it in Bohemia, Silesia, Hesse, and other 
parts of Germany. Eastward it reaches the Crimea, Southern Russia and the Caucasus, and 
further into the central Asiatic regions of Siberia and Dahuria, and reaches Japan. On the 
American continent it is frequent in Canada and the United States as far south as Carolina, 
especially along the chain of the Rocky Mountains. 
WOODSIA GLABELLA, Brown. 
This elegant little species was first distinguished from its congeners in 1823, the specimens 
originally examined being collected by Dr. Richardson in North-Western Canada, near the 
Great Bear Lake, in Captain Franklin’s expedition. It is well distinguished from the species 
already described by its smaller size, the completely smooth fronds, without hairs or paleae, 
and the shape of the pinnae, as described below. The stipes is bare to the base, where, however, 
are many orange-coloured paleae — very long, and cut into a few long filiform teeth at the 
margin. The length of the fronds varies from one and a-half to four inches, being usually 
about three inches; their outline is narrow, decidedly linear-oblong or slightly lanceolate, and 
tapering to the apex ; the pinnae are small — scarcely over a quarter of an inch in length — 
sessile, and distantly placed, especially in the lower portion ; their form varies, the lower 
ones are as broad as long, rounded in their circumference, and deeply and irregularly cut 
into a few wedge-shaped segments, dentate at the top ; those in the remainder of the frond 
are ovate or oblong-ovate, more or less acute, and have their segments oblong or oval. The 
sori are abundantly produced, and are quite similar to those described in the other species, 
the hair-processes of the indusium, however, being not quite so long. 
W. glabella is a very rare species in Europe, and its few localities are widely scattered. 
We have seen specimens from the Alten Valley, in Lapland, and from several localities in 
Southern Tyrol. In this latter region it is found chiefly on dolomitic rock, as on the Seiser 
