Pteris. ~\ 
FERNS. 
59 
in Aberdeenshire, where it probably attains to situations of the heieht. of 1200 or 
1300 feet, Mr. H. C. Watson. 
Geo- Common in Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and north-west 
coast of America. 
PTERIS, Linn. BRAKES. 
(Il7-£pif, a Fern ; from nrcpvZ, a feather.) 
A, part of one of the divisions of the leaf. B, the same magnified , showing 
the continued indusium. C, transverse and perspective view of part of a pinnule. 
D, theca and spore. E, outer indusium magnified, showing its ciliated margin. 
F, transverse section of the leaf -stalk near the root. G, ditto of the creeping 
rhizoma. 
A very extensive genus, comprising no less than 120 species, most of them from 
warm climates. One species only is British. The fructification is borne in a 
continued line along the margin of the frond, which appears to be turned over 
so as to form a continued indusium, but which upon microscopic examination 
is seen to be of different and more delicate structure ; an inner indusium is also 
present in our and some other species, which many botanists consider a necessary 
character of a Pteris, and that its absence or presence might serve to divide the 
genus into tivo. 
PTERIS AQUILINA. 
BRAKES. BRACHEN. FEMALE FERN. 
(Plate VI, fig. 1.) 
Clia. — L eaf-stalks three-branched, branches bipinnate. Larger 
(upper) pinnules pinnatifid, smaller entire. Leaf-stalk smooth. 
Syn. — Pteris aquilina, Linn, and all modern authors. — Filix-fcemina, Ray, Ger. 
— Asplenium aquilina, Bernh. — Pteris caudata ft, Sclik. — Eupteris aquilina, 
Newm. 1854. 
Fig. — E. B. 1679. — Ger. 1128. — Bolt. 10 ( all bad). — Newman (1854), p. 23 
(good). 
Des. — Rootstock long and creeping, black and smooth when old, 
tomentose and brown when young. Leafstalk smooth, shining, 
without pinnae on the lower part, tapering and black near its 
junction with the root. Leaves annual, erect, rigid, repeatedly 
divided, 2 to 5 feet high. Pinnae opposite, more and more divided 
downwards, the smallest entire, the next pinnatifid, still lower ones 
pinnate, pinnato-pinnatifid, and twice pinnate. Pinnules opposite 
below, alternate above, oblong, blunt, connected to the midrib by 
their whole base, that terminating the pinna much larger than the 
others near it. Sori in a continued line around every sinuosity of 
