HARD FERN. 
91 
genus Lojuaria, but retained the present species under the ge- 
nus Blechnum, while Desveux, Presl, Sadler, and other authors 
of good repute, referred to Willdenow’s new genus the species 
now under consideration, and restored the Linnean name to the 
species, calling the plant Lomaria spicant. Immediately after 
the publication of my first edition, the same name was pub- 
lished by Mr. J. Smith, in the ‘ Journal of Botany,’* and it has 
subsequently been adopted by the compilers of the Edinburgh 
Catalogue. t 
The roots of this fern are black, tough, and wiry ; the rhizoma 
tufted and hairy. The young fronds make their appearance in 
May ; they are of two kinds, fertile and barren : the fertile 
fronds arrive at perfection in September, shed their seed, and 
disappear before winter, but the barren fronds continue perfectly 
green and vigorous throughout the year. The fertile frond, re- 
presented of half the natural size by the figure on the preceding 
page, is erect, linear, simply pinnatifid and pointed at the apex ; 
the lower half of the stem is dark purple, smooth, shining, and 
naked, but furnished on each side with some minute rudimentary 
pinnae, scarcely observable without a close inspection, and 
having towards the base a few, scattered, long, narrow, and 
pointed scales ; the upper half of the stem has linear, narrow 
pinnae, rounded at the apex, convolute at the sides, and densely 
and completely covered with seed on the inferior surface. 
1 have to acknowledge the obligations I am under to Miss 
Beever, of Coniston, for fine Westmoreland specimens of this 
plant, sparingly fruited, and to Mr. Jenner, of Lewes, for similar 
Sussex specimens. From these I have been able to learn more 
of the venation of this species than appeared possible from an 
examination of the usual densely fruited form. In these speci- 
mens the pinnules remain flat, as in the barren fronds, a circum- 
stance which much facilitates the enquiry. The mid-vein of 
the pinna [aaa)X is somewhat sinuous, giving off oblique, alter- 
nate, lateral veins [h h b) these lateral veins are united to each 
other by what may be termed an irregular longitudinal vein 
* Journal of Botany, iv. 166. 
f A Catalogue of British Plants, &c. Edinburgh, 1841, p. 16. 
I See wood-cut on next page. 
