128 
rOLYPODIACE^. 
Down. — Mr. Mackay gives the Mourne mountains as a loca- 
lity. — Flora Hihernica. 
Galway.— Mr. Mackay gives Mam Turk as a locality.— 
Hihernica. 
Kerry.— Mr. Woodward informs me there is a single frond in 
Dr. Taylor’s herbarium, labelled Mucruss. 
The geographical range of this species is very extensive : it 
occurs in every country of Europe from the North Cape to Gib- 
raltar, and extends eastward into Turkey, Russia, and Northern 
Asia, and southward into Africa : it is also found throughout 
the United States of North America. It ascends to the exposed 
summits of mountains, especially if dry, almost reaching the 
extreme limits of vegetation, and yet luxuriates in the warmest 
woods if amply provided with shelter and moisture. I know of 
no fern enjoying so great a range of latitude, longitude, and 
elevation. 
The figures of this fern, like those of the last, are less charac- 
teristic than its remarkable form would lead us to expect ; those 
in Bolton’s ‘ Filices’ and ‘ English Botany’ f are better than 
most, but that in Mr. Francis’s ‘Analysis’! is incorrect as 
regards outline and position, the triple character of the frond is 
not w^ell expressed : that in ‘ Flora Danica ’ is also bad, and is 
supposed by some subsequent authors to have been intended for 
Lastrcea dilatatcu 
The name of Oak Fern, derived from Dryopteris, appears as 
inapplicable as that of Beech Fern to the species last described, 
and is adopted in deference to the opinions of others. The 
scientific name of Polypodium Dryopteris has been employed by 
all authors of repute, Roth alone excepted, who describes it as 
having an involucre nearly similar to that which he assigns to 
P, Phegopteris, and he consequently refers it to his genus Po- 
lystichiim,^ 
* Bolt. Fil. tab. 28, not tab. 1. f Eng. Bot. 1625. 
:j: Analysis, PI. 1, figs. 3 and 4. 
§ Polystichum Dryopteris. Fructification um puncta primum distincta et 
Involucro tecta peltato, tenui, flavescenti, undique tunc libevo, at punctual 
centrale fixum contracto, corrugato et demum obi i terato, &c. -—Roth, Flor. 
Germ. ii. 81. 
