112 CYSTOPTERIS DICK1EAXA. 
4-CYSTOTTEEIS DICKIEA'NA. 
THIS Fern was discovered in a cave upon the sea-shore 
near Aberdeen, and it has been named after its 
discoverer, Dr. Dickie. He found it during the year 
1846, and we are not aware that it has been found 
elsewhere than in that cavern. Mr. Francis thinks 
that it is only a variety of Cystopteris fragilis ; whilst 
Mr. Moore and Mr. Babington make C. dentata a 
species, and consider that Dickieana is a variety of this. 
With such authorities against us, we hesitate to express 
our conviction that it is a species. However, as we 
feel that conviction, we are bound to record it. Even 
those who describe it as a variety acknowledge that it 
retains its characteristics under cultivation, and we 
have been told that it is reproduced from its spores. If 
this be so, there can be small doubt of its title to be 
ranked as a species, and we shall be much obliged by 
the communication of any information on this subject. 
Root tufted, pale brown. Frond dark green, pointed 
egg-shaped in its general outline ; leaflets inclining to a 
horizontal position, and so close together that the leafits 
overlap those on the leant next below. The leaflets are 
spear-head-shaped, and the leafits, if leafits they are, 
but they are so joined at their base as to be for the most 
part lobes, are crowded and overlapping, broad-egg- 
shaped, and finely-scollojed on their edges. The 
fructification is in very distinct masses, never running 
together, situated at the ends of the veins so as to form 
