HARD FERN. 
89 
HARD FERN [one-Jifth the natural size). 
Lomaria spicant, Desveux. 
Bleclinum horeale^ Smith, Hooker, Babington. 
The Hard Fern is almost universally distributed throughout 
the kingdom, in woods, on commons, heaths, and all uncultivated 
ground : it is fond of moisture, ‘ and prefers clayey and gravelly 
soil : on chalk it is rarely met with. I do not recollect having 
seen a specimen from the chalk hills of Kent, Sussex or Surrey. 
This fern occurs in every European list, and has been found 
in Northern Africa : it has also been recorded as a native of 
North America, but I have met with no satisfactory evidence on 
this subject; and it is absent from collections which have been 
most obligingly sent me, from different localities, by Mr. Boott, 
Mr. Lea and Mr. Oakes. 
