58 
FERNS. 
[. Blechnum . 
BLECHNUM BOREALE. 
HARD FERN. ROUGH SPLEENWORT. 
(Plate V, fig. 6.) 
Cha. — Fertile leaves, strap-shaped, pinuatipartite, like a double 
comb, segments rather obtuse. Barren leaves pinnate, the pinnae 
linear, acute. 
Syn. — Blechnum boreale, Swz., Willd., Spreng. Smith, Hook., Mack., Galp., 
Gray. — Blechnum Spicant, Roth., With. — Osmunda Spicant, Linn., Bolt., 
Hedw., Ehrh., Lightf. — Osmunda borealis, Salish. — Lonchitis aspera, 
Ray, Ger. — Acrostichum nemorale, Lam., FI. Fr. — Acrostichum Spicant, 
Sihth., Fill. — Asplenium Spicant, Bemh. — Onoclea Spicant, Iioffm. — 
Lomaria Spicant, Desv., Presl. — Blechnum Spicant, Newm. (1854). 
Fro.— E. B. 1159 —Bolt. 6 .—Flo. Dan. 99.— Ger. 1140. — Schk. Fil. 110. 
Des. — Rootstock black, tufted, scaly, with stout fibres. Leaf- 
stalk smooth and polished. Fertile leaves numerous, erect, strap- 
shaped, tapering at each end, about a foot high, pinuatipartite, 
partitions linear, dilated somewhat at the base, in some degree 
falcate, distant from each other, and alternate, wholly covered on the 
under side with fruit. Barren leaves broader and shorter than those 
which are fertile, and growing more on the outside of the plant, 
pinnate, their pinnae oblong, curved upward, and placed close 
together at their bases, but scarcely dilated at that part. Sori 
continued in an uninterrupted line from the base to the point of each 
pinna, one on each side of the midrib. Indusium attached to very 
near the edge of the pinna, opening on the side nearest the midx-ib. 
While young, the hack of the pinna shows only the midrib and two irregularly 
edged white covers ; afterwards these bend back and turn brown, and as in our 
species no leafy expansion appears outside the lines of the theca;, the indusium 
seeming to be the edge of the frond reversed, it might be taken at first sight for a 
Pteris, yet upon examination a narrow extension of the frond will be seen beyond 
the insertion of the indusia. A curious variety of Bleclinnm boreale is found 
by Miss Beever, near Ambleside. Its lobes arc much distorted, serrated, toothed, 
or deeply crenate. I have ventured to name and figure a portion of one of the 
fronds kindly sent me by Miss Beever. 
j8 ( slricta ). Frond linear, pinnae abbreviated, and with irregular margins. 
Sit. — On sandy heaths, hedgerows, stony places, &c. 
Hah. — Spread throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland ; in the last country 
especially in the counties of Wicklow and Clare. It ascends to 700 yards in 
Cumberland, 800 in Forfarshire, and much higher on the Cairngorum Mountains, 
