228 
ASPIDIACE.E. 
are well acquainted with this species, and consider it perfectly 
distinct, have given me other habitats in Herefordshire, Merio- 
nethshire and Sussex. 
Beyond the limits of our own country I am unable to trace 
the range of Lastrcea recurva, 
I am not aware of the existence of any figure of this fern, 
excepting those which are presented to the reader in the present 
volume : for that given below I am indebted to the kindness of 
the late lamented Mr. Loudon ; to whose readiness to oblige, 
and to render assistance on all subjects connected with Natural 
History, I am glad to have an opportunity of bearing my hum- 
ble and grateful testimony. 
The following notices respecting this fern have occurred. 
The Rev. W. T. Bree, in a paper on Cornish plants written for 
the fourth volume of Loudon’s ‘Magazine of Natural History,’ 
mentions Aspid, dilatatum var. recurvum for the first time under 
that name, and in a foot-note gives the following description. 
“This fera I have very little doubt is really a distinct species; 
and one which I believe has not hitherto been described, at least 
not as a native of Britain. Although it strikes the eye immediately 
as being different from Aspidium dilatatum^ it is difficult, I con- 
fess, to seize upon those permanent 
characters by which it is to be distin- 
guished. The minute divisions of 
the leaflets in Aspidium dilatatum 
frequently droop or curl under, while 
the corresponding parts in the present 
subject invariably curl back or up- 
wards in an exactly contrary direction 
[see fig. JJ, and thus give the whole 
frond a singularly crisped appearance. 
But the strongest character by which 
it may be distinguished from its near 
ally, consists in the lowest pair of 
pinnae or leaflets being much larger 
than the others, which is not the case 
in A. dilatatum ; so that the frond assumes a deltoid or tri- 
angular form, broadest at the base, and tapering to the apex. 
