POLTPODIUM CALCAREUM. 209 
brown and crowded as they ripen. The colour of the 
entire frond is a very distinguishing mealy, dark green. 
It is found only on a limestone soil (whence its 
* specific name, calcareum), on mountainous heaths, and 
in wooded places. We are not aware of its being found 
native in either Ireland or Scotland; but in England it 
grows about Matlock Bath, and on the road-side under 
the Lover's Leap at Buxton, in Derbyshire ; at Sbeddin 
Clough, near Burnley, and near Lancaster ; at Arncliff, 
Gordale, White Scars, near Ingleton, and near iSettle, in 
Yorkshire; on Cheddar Cliffs and Box Quarries, near 
Bath, in Somersetshire ; and in Leigh Woods, near 
Bristol. 
This is not a newly-discovered Fern, for it was known 
to Clusius, Taberuseiuontanus, and Gerarde ; but it was 
first recognised as a native of England by the late 
President of the Linnsean Society, Sir J. E. Smith. It 
has been described by botanists under the following 
names : Gymnocarpium Roberlianum, Lastrtea calcarea, 
and L. Mobertiana, Phegopteris calcarea, and Polypo- 
dium Robertianum. In Johnson's edition of Gerarde s 
Herbal it is figured and described as Dryopteris Tragi. 
In English it is known as the Limestone Polypody, 
Rigid three-branched Polypody, and Smith's Fern. 
Mr. W. Reeve says that this Fern, like the P. alpestre, 
is a desirable species for cultivation, and is very scarce. 
It is pretty, and may be very successfully treated. It 
will be found to prefer, and, in fact, will not do in any 
other than, a free, open compost, composed of fibry 
peat, loam, and vegetable mould, equalised to form 
p 
