European Ferns. 
158 
In the variety uliginosa, to which allusion has already been made, we have three kinds 
of fronds — the spring or early ones, which are fertile ; other, smaller ones, produced about 
the same time, which are barren ; and later ones, appearing in the summer, the pinnules of 
which are broader and blunter, and either fertile or barren in different examples. This is a 
rare British plant, occurring in Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and Cheshire. So truly 
intermediate does it appear between L. cristata and L. spinulosa that it is placed under the 
former by some writers, and 
under the latter by others. 
The pinnules of the entire 
fronds are more acute and 
more conspicuously toothed 
than in typical cristata. 
LASTREA SPINULOSA, 
Presl. 
FROND OF LASTREA SPINULOSA (ONE-SIXTH NATURAL SIZE). 
This is one of the com- 
monest, and certainly one of 
the handsomest of our ferns ; 
its large gracefully drooping 
fronds at once attract the eye 
in the marshy places and damp 
woods where it delights to 
grow, and its distribution 
throughout Britain is very 
general, although it becomes 
rare as we go north, and does 
not occur at all in the more 
northern parts of Scotland. It 
is very difficult to give any very 
clear idea of L. spinulosa by 
means of a figure, on account 
of its large size ; the accom- 
panying figure is drawn one- 
sixth of the size of a moderate- 
sized plant ; while we give also 
a pinna drawn of the natural 
size. The stipites are tufted, 
about a foot long, covered 
sparingly throughout their 
length with short, pale-brown 
scales. The fronds are usually 
from a foot to two feet long, 
but sometimes of greater length, 
and from half a foot to eight 
inches across in their lowest 
