Scolopendrium .] ferns. 51 
1$ Rachis red and somewhat scaly. (This is the character the plant bears 
in Switzerland.) 
y (Aspid. irriguum, Sm.) Frond narrow, pinnae distant, deeply cleft. 
^ Frond broad and small, pinnae and pinnules short and few, nearly white. 
All the varieties of this Fern are so very tender (particularly the var. y), 
that they shrivel up and become withered almost immediately upon being 
gathered. Under the name of Aspidium irriguum, I have received fronds 
(without fruit) of very different habit, marked y and $, neither of them by any 
means a distinct species, perhaps not even a constant variety, as the former 
appears to me rather a plant drawn up either by a confined 'situation or excess 
of moisture, while the other is perhaps a young plant only, and its very light 
color an adventitious circumstance. The beauty of this common plant occa- 
sioned its name of Lady Fern, contrasting as it does with the robust habit of 
Filix-mas or Male Fern. 
Sit. — Its natural habitation is swampy woods and damp hedge-rows ; or, as 
Sir Walter Scott incidentally remarks in his novel of “ Waverley,” — 
“ Where the copse- wood is the greenest. 
Where the fountain glistens sheenest. 
Where the morning dew lies longest. 
There the Lady Fern grows strongest.” 
Hab. — Pretty freely distributed over the southern and midland counties of 
England and Ireland, though it is by no means abundant in North Wales or 
North Scotland, except in particular neighbourhoods. — /2 : Frequent in moist 
woods in Kent, Mr. W. Pamplin. — y : Ruberslaw, Jedburgh ; Aber, Caern. ; 
and near the English Bridge, Shrewsbury, Mr. Leighton. Marsh at Mucruss, 
Killarney, Mr. Mackay. In some boggy woods belonging to Eridge Park, 
Tunbridge Wells, (1835), Mr. W. Pamplin. — 5: Prestwich Carr, near Man- 
chester, Mr. Merrick, who gave me a specimen, (5 inches high.) 
Geo. — Throughout Europe, and from Canada to Virginia, in North America. 
SCOLOPENDRIUM, Swz. HART’S-TONGUE. 
A, portion of a frond of Scolopendrium vulgare, showing the origin of the 
fruit from lateral veins, and with its ordinary appearance. B, transverse section 
of the twin masses of fruit, with their folding indusiums while in a young state. 
C, ripened fruit, in which the sori have become confluent, and thrown back the 
covers. E, theca and spores. F, theca opened. G. transverse section of the 
rachis. 
The sorus of this small genus appears to have two indusiums, at first folded 
over each other, and afterwards thrown back in contrary directions; but in 
fact the sorus itself is no less double, two of them growing together so closely as 
to form in appearance but one mass ; this is transverse, and seated between those 
lateral veins to which the two covers are attached. 
