96 CYSTOPTERIS ALPINA. 
'/ CYSTOTTEPJS ALPI'NA. 
THIS very pretty Fern has been variously named. 
Linnaeus and others called it Polypodium regium; some 
entitled it Aspidium regium ; and by a third group of 
Botanists it is described under the title of Cyathea regia. 
In English it is called Alpine Bladder-Fern, Laciniated 
Bladder-Fern, and Three-cleft Polypody. The name of 
Bladder-Fern was bestowed upon the genus because the 
indusium or cover of each mass of spores is inflated like 
a bladder. 
The main body of the root is short, tufted, and scaly, 
producing numerous scattered dark-coloured fibrous 
rootlets. The fronds issuing from the tufted top of the 
root are numerous, varying in height from three to even 
twelve inches ; they are bright green, their general out- 
line spear-head-shaped, the leaflets so deeply lobed as to 
almost form leafits; and these lobes are mostly three on 
each side-stalk of the leaflet. Each lobe is egg-shaped, 
blunt, and very finely cut, or laciuiated at the edges. 
The segments into which the lobes are cut are long-oval- 
shaped and partly notched, but not long and narrow, 
nor wavy-edged like those of Cystopteris angustata, 
nor are their ribs zig-zagged as in that species. The 
leaflets are almost opposite to each other, yet are just 
sufficiently otherwise to justify their being described 
as alternate. 
The unleafed part of the stem (stipe) of each frond is 
