Cystopteris. 
2 5 
but Professor Babington gives “Teesdale, Mr. J. Backhouse" with certainty, which locality, so rich 
in rare plants, should be carefully examined for the plant. Mr. Backhouse is said to have 
gathered it there in 1872. 
C. alpina is not, as here understood, very variable, and may always be readily known by 
its long narrow segments as described above. 
CYSTOPTERIS SUDETICA, A. Br. & Milde. 
This species of Bladder-Fern was only made known to botanists in 1855, and has been 
found as yet in but few localities. The frond is larger than that of C. fragilis, and though 
like it in texture, in form it more approaches the next, C. montana. Its rhizome is creeping and 
branched, set at the end with short ovate palese, which have the margins entire. The fronds 
are from twelve to fifteen inches in length, more than half of which length is occupied by the 
slender, smooth, delicate stipes, which has scarcely any scales upon it. The frond itself is 
triangular, the lowest pinnae being the longest ; it is about six inches in length and the same 
wide ; the pinnae are distant and wide-spreading, oblong-lanceolate, acute, and tapering to a 
slender point, and are divided into ovate distant pinnules, which are very deeply cut into 
oblong blunt or wedge-shaped segments with several small teeth at the end. The sori are 
small, few, and distant, close to the edge of the segments, and the indusium is densely 
glandular. The spores are minutely tubercled. 
This species is a native of mountain woods at 6,000 feet elevation and lower, in several 
places in the Sudetes mountains of Moravia ' it has also occurred in Transylvania, Galicia, 
and several parts of the Carpathian chain, and has been found in Eastern Siberia near Yakutzk. 
The plant varies like the rest of the genus in the width of the segments of the pinnules. 
CYSTOPTERIS MONTANA, Bernh. 
This rare and beautiful species is quite distinct from the rest of the genus to which it belongs, 
and indeed presents a strong similarity to Polypodium Robertiauum. Its rhizome is long and 
creeping, nearly black, and covered with large yellowish palese in the younger portions, the 
fronds being given off at longish intervals. The stipites are slender, erect, rather wavy, longer 
than the fronds, and provided very sparingly, chiefly below, with scattered lax ovate acute 
scales. The fronds are distinctly triangular in outline, about four to six inches in length, and 
about the same in breadth at the base, the two lowest pinnae are very much the longest, all are 
wide-spreading, and the frond rapidly tapers to an acute point ; the pinnules are ovate-oblong, 
spreading, acute, or tapering, markedly alternate, and those on the lower side of the pinnae, 
especially of the two basal pinnae, are very much larger than those on the upper, so that the 
pinnae are strongly lop-sided ; the pinnules are again divided into tertiary leaflets, which are 
ovate and very deeply cleft nearly to the base into broadish pinnatifid segments, with two or 
three acute teeth at the end of each division. The sori are small, and arranged in two lines, one 
on either side of the tertiary divisions ; the indusium is ovate acute, sometimes toothed near 
the top, and smooth, but in old specimens it often becomes shrivelled and reflexed, and requires 
careful examination for its detection. 
There is not much variability in this beautiful species, the chief difference in plants from 
various localities being in their size. This is noticeable in the English, or rather Scotch specimens, 
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