V. CYSTOPTERIS. 
and having then- pinnules and segments much more closely 
and compactly arranged than in that species. It has a 
short tufted caudex, from which the fibrous roots are pro- 
truded, and to which the fronds are 
terminal and adherent. The fronds, 
usually produced in May and dying 
down early in autumn, are numerous, 
bright green, erect, lanceolate, and 
vary from four to eight or ten 
inches in height. They are bipin- 
nated, some of the pinnules being so 
deeply pinnatifid as to appear almost 
again pinnate; they are, however, 
scarcely tripinnate, the lobes of the 
pinnules being, I believe, in almost 
all cases, decurrent. The stipes is 
usually short, not so brittle as in 
fragilit, and smooth except imme- 
diately at the base, where it is sur- 
rounded by a few pointed brown 
scales. The pinna; are ovate, divided 
into bluntly-ovate pinnules which 
are distinctly stalked !md deeply 
cleft, almost down to the midvein, 
into short blunt linear lobes, which 
are sometimes entire, and sometimes 
have two or three erect blunt teeth ; 
these lobes bein<j distinctly decur- 
rent at the base, the pinnules are 
pinnatifid, and not pinnate, although 
sometimes very nearly so. The vena- 
tion is very distinct. The mid-vein 
dary rachis, is slightly winged. The mid-vein of the 
pinnules is almost straight ; from this a venule branches 
off to each lobe, and these venules are either simply forked 
or, according to the size of the pinnule, have three or four 
alternate branches, one branch extending to the point of 
