RIGID FERN. 
195 
adopted in the nomenclature ; for the present I adhere to that I 
have previously employed. It may also be mentioned that the 
present plant appears to be the Polypodium fragrans of Villars’ 
plants of Dauphine,* (although Swartz thinks otherwise, and 
has redescribed Villars’ plant under the new name of Villarii), 
and the Aspidium fragrans of Gray’s ‘Natural Arrangement of 
British Plants :’ f with respect to the latter author, it should be 
particularly observed that his Aspidium fragrans is not to be 
supposed identical with either Thelypteris or Oreopteris, since 
both these species are also described, the former under the name 
of palustre^ the latter under that of odoriferum. In Hooker 
and Greville’s ‘ leones Filicum ’J the name of Neplirodium fra- 
grans is given to a fern collected by Captain Parry during one 
of his arctic voyages, and the Linnean name of Polypodium 
fragrans is given as a synonym. The Pev. W. S. Hore informs 
me he has a specimen of a similar fern, collected by Mr. Grif- 
fiths on Melvill Island. Miss Beever has obligingly sent me the 
following quotation from one of Rousseau’s ‘ Lettres sur la 
Botanique.’ — “ Je crois me rappeler par exemple qu’il le trouve 
quelques fougeres, entre autres le Polypodium fragrans que j’ai 
herborise en Angleterre, et qui ne sont pas communes partout.” 
Rousseau’s residence in this country being Wootton Hall, in 
Staffordshire, this fern was probably L, Oreopteris, Lastreea 
rigida of this work is synonymous with Polystichum strigosum 
of Roth.§ 
The roots are long, and the rhizoma large and tufted : the 
stem is unusually thick at the base, and is very densely clothed 
with large red scales, which are present, though less abundant, 
throughout its entire length ; the proportion of the stem to the 
frond varies betweeen a fourth and half : the frond is nearly 
erect, pinnate, and is in habit a good deal like L. Filix-mas ; 
its form is variable, as I have already shown by the quotation 
from Mr. Pinder’s letter ; the extreme of the lanceolate and tri- 
angular form are shown in the two figures ; the pinnules are 
more or less crowded ; those towards the base are more distant 
* Histoire des Plantes de Daupliiiie , iii. 843. f Nat. Arr. ii. 9. 
I leones Filicum, vol. i. tab. 70. § Roth, Flor. Germ. iii. 86. 
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