RIGID FERN. 
193 
still I imagine the triangular to be the true form of the plant, 
having been informed by a person resident in the neighbourhood 
that the plant from Ingleborough assumes the triangular form 
in cultivation. I do not know whether it has been recorded 
that this fern possesses a slight scent, not at all unpleasant, but 
strikingly different from that of other ferns.” 
Yorkshire. — The Rev. Mr. Bree first found this fern on In- 
gleborough, near the foot of the mountain : it has since been 
found in the same locality by Mr. Finder. Mr. Tatham informs 
me “ it grows abundantly in the fissures of limestone rocks, at 
an elevation of 1550 feet above the level of the sea, and 1050 
feet above the town of Settle : in company with it are found As- 
plenium viride and Polystichum Lonchitis, the latter sparingly.” 
I have to acknowledge my obligation to all the botanists men- 
tioned for specimens from the various localities, with the excep- 
tion of that in Lancashire. 
Sadler gives this species as an inhabitant of Hungary, Ger- 
many, France and Italy, but he excludes it from Britain, Scan- 
dinavia and Spain. It occurs in Siberia, but I am not aware of 
its having been found in Africa or America. 
There are but few figures of this fern : that in Schkuhr is 
admirable; those in ‘ English Botany’^ and in Mr. Francis’s 
work t are not to be spoken of in terms of praise. 
With regard to the name of this fern I have long suspected 
we are in error. I am quite inclined to believe it identical with 
that originally described as Polypodium fragrans by Linneus. 
The first description by Linneus answers well for the present 
plant ; — “ Fronds sub-bipinnate lanceolate, pinnules crowded, 
their lobes obtuse, serrated, stalk scaly : and he adds, as if to 
enforce the character of the serrated lobes, ‘‘ It has the habit of 
Filix-mas but is much less, the pinnules are more thickly 
crowded, their lateral lobes obtuse and more deeply serrated.”§ 
Linneus also quotes Amman’s Dryopieris rubum idceum spirans, 
* Eng. Bot. 2724. f Analysis, PI. iii. fig. 5. 
J Polypodium frondihus suk -bipin natis lanceolatis : foliolis confertis : lobis 
obtusis serratis stipite paleaceo. — Sp. Plan. 1089 of the 1st edition. 
§ Habitus P. F. raaris at longe minor. Foliola densius congesta, lobis la- 
teralibus obtusis profundi us serratis. — Id. 1. c. 
o 
