roth’s fern. 
223 
poses it to be merely a variety of his 
Polysticlium spinosum, but Lamarck 
and Decandolle admit it as a species 
without any hesitation, and say that it 
has been found by Desfontaines on the 
mountains of Auvergne.^' The only 
specimens I have seen of the British 
plant, are two small ones in the Smith- 
ian herbarium (which are labelled as 
having been raised by Mr. Shepherd 
from the seeds of Smith’s Aspidium 
dumetorum), and a few fronds collect- 
ed upon the hills of Westmoreland, 
Yorkshire and Lancashire : and I am 
indebted to the kindness of Miss Bee- 
ver and Mr. Finder for those which I 
possess from these localities. We 
must not, however, conclude that the 
species is rare, on account of its ab- 
sence from herbaria, since everything 
supposed to be referrible to dilatata^ 
is but too commonly rejected by the 
collector. 
Little as we learn from the Latin 
and French descriptions which I have 
Polysticlium tanacetifolium. Sa feuille est 
grande, elegante, presque trois fois pennee ; le 
petiole commun est droit, cylindrique, charge 
de quelques ecailles roussatres, non renfle a 
la division des pinnules; celles-ci sont elles- 
memes pennees, et leurs folioles sont profonde- 
ment pinnatifides; les lohes sont lineaires, den- 
teles vers le sommet; les fructifications sont 
placees a I’aisselle des sinus des lohes ; le tegu- 
ment est peu apparent, en forme de rein omhi- 
lique sur le cote. 2/. Cette espece a ete trou- 
vee dans les montagnes d’ Auvergne, par le C. 
Desfontaines. — Flor. Franc, ii. 562. 
