European Ferns. 
Anglo-Saxon “ Herbarium Apuleii,” under the name of fern : “ For wounds, take a root of this 
wort, which is named filex, and by another name fern, pounded, lay it to the wound”; and 
again, in the “Leech-book” (i. 23), also edited by Mr. Cockayne: “For thigh ache, smoke 
the thighs thoroughly with fern.” 
The Bracken is called the Eagle Fern in books, with reference to the markings in the 
rhizome already described, and the Scotch name Ern-fern has a similar meaning, ern being a 
Scotch word for eagle. In Norfolk it is sometimes called the Oak Fern, again in allusion 
to the form which the markings of the rhizome have been supposed to exhibit. We have 
already pointed out the meaning of the name Female Fern as applied to the Bracken. 
Jamieson gives Shady-bracken as one of its Scotch titles. In Sussex it is sometimes called 
Adder-spit. It is known in French as fougere porte-aigle, grande fougfre femelle , and fougere 
a cerises. 
PTERIS ARGUTA, Ait. 
We have here another fine species, which only reaches the south-western shores of Europe, 
and is unknown in the rest of the continent. P. arguta (which is sometimes called P. palustris , 
Loir.) is a fern with a creeping rhizome, covered at the end with copious, very narrow, long, shin- 
ing, dark-brown paleae. The stipites are stout, hard, and erect ; quite smooth, cylindrical, without 
any scales or hairs, and of a bright orange-brown : they attain a length of one or two feet, 
and support a frond of about the same or rather greater length. This is of a thin almost 
membranous texture, and has a somewhat, drooping habit ; its outline is ovate, narrower or 
broader in different specimens, and very acute. The pinnae are large, not very numerous, 
rather distant, nearly opposite, and directed forward ; their usual form is lanceolate-oblong, 
drawn out and tapering at the point ; they are sessile on the main rachis, or very nearly so, 
the lowest pair being sometimes shortly stalked. These pinnae are simply pinnate, or perhaps 
we should rather say pinnatisect, the pinnules or segments being very broad-based, oblong- 
lanceolate, somewhat curved forward or falcate, acute at the end, and finely but sharply 
toothed along the edge ; they are decurrent at the base, as is specially observable in the lowest 
one next the rachis, which usually runs down the latter for a short distance. The colour is a bright, 
clear, dark-green, the surface is quite smooth, and the lateral veins are simply forked, a branch 
running into each tooth. The lowest pinnae are not unfrequently further divided, the pinnules, 
on the lower side especially, being large and long, and divided into tertiary divisions of similar 
form to those above described. The sori are placed on the edge of the segments, in a line of 
variable length, and never occupying the whole of the margin ; it is usually the lower part 
that is soriferous, the upper portion being barren ; at the parts where there is fructification the 
marginal teeth are absent. The sporangia are very numerous, and nearly covered by the mem- 
branous, greyish-brown false indusium, which has no teeth or hairs at the edge ; there is no 
true inferior indusium, but numerous minute thread-like bodies mixed with the sporangia are 
supposed to represent it. 
The head-quarters of this beautiful species are in the Atlantic Islands, especially Madeira, 
where it is abundant in wet shady ravines from nearly the sea-level up to 3,000 feet ; in the 
Azorean Islands it is also common, and it grows in Tcneriffe. As above remarked, the only 
certainly known locality on the Continent of Europe is in Portugal, where, in the Serra de 
Cintra, near Lisbon, it has long been known to occur rarely. The late Dr. YVelwitsch collected 
specimens in this locality in 1848, but it has not been met with in other parts of the Spanish 
