EHRH art’s fern. 
207 
rudely semi-lunar markings, which seemed to indicate the former 
points of attachment for those chaffy scales with which the 
crown of the rhizoma, as well as stems of almost every 
species of Lastr(Ea, appear to abound : a figure of 
the base of an old frond-stem exhibiting this charac- 
ter is given in the margin. 
The fronds are but few in each tuft, and rise from 
the crown of each growing branch of the rhizoma ; 
they appear in May, and remain green till near the 
end of the year. The form of the young unexpanded 
frond somewhat resembles that of Lastrcea Oreopteris; 
the general character is circinate, but the pinnae are 
perfectly flat, the lower pair being incumbent on the 
second, the second on the third, and so on. Young 
expanded fronds, of the natural size, are shown at h, p. 203 ; in 
every instance they were sketched from living and growing ex- 
amples, a vigorous plant having been most obligingly sent me 
by Mr. R. Jacob. The stem is of nearly equal length with the 
frond, very erect, and clothed with scattered, broad, obtuse, 
short, semi-transparent, pale brown, uniformly coloured scales. 
The frond itself is erect, narrow, linear and pinnate : the pinnae, 
which are attached by the stalk only, are generally rather dis- 
tant, short, broad at the base, nearly triangular and pinnate, or 
deeply pinnatifid : the pinnules are very blunt at the apex, and 
serrated both at the apex and along the sides ; they are generally 
decurrent or united at the base, and almost invariably attached 
to the midrib of the pinnae by their greatest diameter. When 
the frond is very luxuriant and fruitful the pinnae become much 
more elongate, and the pinnules more remote. 
The lateral veins of the pinnules are many-branched, and 
the anterior branch bears a circular cluster of capsules about 
half-way between the midvein and margin : the clusters are co- 
vered by a flat, reniform involucre, the margins of which are 
sinuate, but not jagged or torn ; and I have not been able to 
detect, either on its margin or disk, the slightest appearance of 
glands. In luxuriant specimens the clusters are much crowded, 
and finally become confluent ; they are always confined to the 
upper part of the frond. 
