30 
FERNS. 
[ Aspidium . 
Bog on Waterdown Forest, near Tunbridge Wells (1835), Mr. Pamplin. 
Windsor Park and Sunning Hill Wells, Berks., Mr. J. Beevis. Knutsford 
Moor and New Church Bog, near Over, Cheshire, Mr. W. Wilson. Near 
Beaumaris, Anglesea, Mr. J. E. Bowman. Border of Lake, near Red Wharf, 
Anglesea, Mr. W. Wilson. Forfarshire (1824), Mr. R. Maughan. Common 
in Scotland, Sir W. J. Hooker. Marshes at Glencree, County of Wicklow, 
and Mucruss, Killarney, Mr. Mackay. 
Geo. — Pomerania, Mccklenburgh, Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, N. and S. 
Africa, and in all the United States, but seldom with fruit. 
5. — ASPIDIUM OREOPTERIS. 
IIEATH SHIELD-FERN, 
(Plate 2, fig. 7.) 
Cha.— Frond pinnate, lanceolate. Pinnae glandulous, deeply 
cleft. Segments blunt, entire. Root tufted. 
Syn.*— Aspidium Oreoptcris, Swz., Willd., Smith, Hook., Gulp., Spreng., 
Mack., Schk.. — Polypodium Oreopteris, Ehrh., Dicks., With., Hull, 
Sibth., Hoffm., Linn.— Polypodium Tlielypteris, Huds., Bolt., Light/., 
Hedw.—- Polystichum montanum, Decan. 
Fig.-— if. B. 1019.— Flo. Dan. 1121 .—Bolt. 22, /. 1 and 2. 
Des. — Root tufted, large, black, scaly, fibrous. Fronds several, 
growing in a circle from a crown, finely lanceolate, tapering at both 
ends. Rachis covered with fine hair on the upper part, and with a 
few scattered scales on the lower, delicate green, with a deep channel 
on the upper side. Pinnae extending nearly all along the rachis, 
more or less alternate, sessile, deeply pinnatifid, tapering to a fine 
point, on the upper side smooth, on the under side hairy, particu- 
larly about the main rib, covered with yellowish, shining glands, 
smelling of turpentine. Segments very numerous, fiat, blunt and 
entire. Sori marginal, at length conflueut, covering all the pinnae. 
Cover thin, white, kidney-shaped, soon shrivelling up. 
The fresh plant may instantly be known from all its congeners by the smell 
emitted when drawn through the hand, or by holding it up to the light, 
in which situation it shows very plainly, translucent, minute points, very 
similar to those seen in Hypericum Perforatum, though, be it observed, that un- 
favorable situation and cold weather will often prevent the formation of, if not 
obliterate these odorous pores. They are most abundant when the plants grow 
in sunny but not too dry localities. This Fern can only be mistaken for Asp. 
Thel. or Asp. Fil. Mas ; it has already been distinguished from the former in 
describing that plant, from the latter it may easily be known by its more 
elegant shape, its smaller size and more delicate structure, no less than by its 
greater smoothness in every part, particularly its rachis. The segments of the 
pinnae also are not crenate, as in Filix Mas, and the sori, which in that are 
large, distinct, and confined to the lower half of the segment, are in this plant 
small, closer together, more numerous, and continued throughout the whole 
length of the segment, very near the margin, 
