roth’s fern. 
2Q1 
which succeed them ; the diminution of the rest in size is some- 
times very abrupt, sometimes gradual. 
Each lateral vein supplies one lobe or division of a pinnule ; 
it is always branched, and almost every branch bears a circular 
cluster of capsules : the clusters therefore are much more nume- 
rous, scattered and irregular than in the preceding, and want 
that formal biserial appearance which distinguishes that species. 
They are covered by a very irregular but somewhat reniform in- 
volucre, whose margins are uneven, and more or less fringed 
with sessile or stalked transparent glandular bodies ; these are 
described as characteristic of Aspidium spiniilosum by Swartz, 
Schkuhr, Willdenow, Sadler and Francis, and the present plant 
is thus identified with the spimilosum of those authors. This 
involucre is represented by the middle figure at page 236. 
Contrasted with the preceding, Lastrcea multijlora is a much 
larger plant ; its fronds are much longer, broader, heavier, and 
of a deeper green colour ; their position curved or arched, of- 
ten pendulous, never erect, and every part of the frond, instead 
of being flat, has a tendency to be convex. When the fronds 
are young, every part of their under surface, more particularly 
the ribs, abounds with minute stalked glands, imparting a meal- 
iness of appearance to the plant, which distinguishes it from L. 
spinosa, as the same character separates P, Dryopteris and P. 
calcareum : again, in L. multijlora, every part of the frond is 
covered with capsules, except about the base of the first pair of 
pinnae, in which they are sometimes wanting ; in L. spinosa they 
are usually confined to the upper part of the frond. The divi- 
sions of the frond are much more numerous, and the number of 
clusters proportionably greater, but the large, long and pointed 
scales on the stem, with their dark middles and pale sides, will 
furnish botanists wdth the best and most constant character, 
since in the seedlings of the two species all characters of figure, 
cutting, size or fructification, are apt to be wanting. 
There are two forms, so different in many respects from the 
normal form of L. multijlora, that I feel great difficulty in giv- 
ing any opinion as to whether they are distinct species, or merely 
modifications of the one which I have now been describing. I 
do not however feel justified in making any further addition to 
