50 
FERNS. 
[Asplenium . 
Des. — Frond tripinnate, ovate or deltoid, 4 to 8 inches high, dark 
green, rigid, and erect. Rachis black, smooth, slightly winged, 
clothed with pinnae only on the upper half. Pinnae alternate, those 
only on the lower part twice pinnate, the lowermost the largest. 
Pinnules deeply cleft, tapering at their base, sharply serrated at and 
near the top. Sori linear at first, round at last, covering the whole 
under surface of the frond. 
a. Fronds rigid, tripinnate only at the lower part. ( The common plant.) 
(3. Fronds delicate, tripinnate throughout. ( Not j3 of Smith.) 
Sir J. E. Smith, in conformity with the old authors, makes another variety, 
differing only from the common plant in having long fronds and distant pinnae ; 
but I leave any one to say if it be anything more than a drawn -up plant of the 
common species, found as it was, solitary, in a dark cave. 
Hab. — a : Common through the United Kingdom, on walls, rocks, &c. I 
have habitats from the Orkney Islands, and from those in the English Channel, 
from the eastern as well as from the western counties, from Wales, Scotland, 
and Ireland. Dr. Murray writes me, “ not common in the north of Scotland.” 
— (3 : Limestone rocks at Mucruss, Killarney, Mr. Mackay, Miss Hutchins, and 
Dr. Taylor. Mount Cahir-Cource, six miles from Tralee, Mr. W. Andreivs. 
Geo. — Italy, France, Germany, Madeira, and high mountains of Carolina. 
10.— ASPLENIUM FILIX-FCEMINA. 
LADY FERN. 
(Plate V, fig. 4.) 
Cha. — Frond broadly lanceolate, bipinnate. Pinnae tapering, 
pointed. Pinnules oblong, inciso-serrate. Rachis smooth. 
Syn. — Asplenium Filix-fcemina, Hook., Mack., Spreng., Bemh. — Aspidium 
Filix-fcemina, Swz., Willd., Smith, Hook, in FI. Sco., Galp . — Polypodium 
Filix-fcemina, Linn., Lightf, Huds., Bolt., Dicks., With . — Polypod. ovato- 
crenatum, Hoffrn . — Athyrium Fil.-fcem., Roth., Decan., Brest, Neivm. 
Fig. — E. B. 1459. — Flo. Dan. 1340. — Bolt. 25. — Pluk. Phyt. 180, f. 4. 
— Neivm. p. 63. 
Des. — Root large, tufted. Rachis without scales, green (rarely 
purple), the naked part very short. Frond bipinnate, broadly lan- 
ceolate, long-pointed, and tapering at the base, 12 to 20 inches high, 
dark green, very delicate in habit, often recurved. Finnic alternate, 
from twenty to forty pairs, oblong, tapering gradually to a point, the 
lower ones sometimes di-ooping. Pinnules very numei*ous, oblong, 
rather blunt, pinnatifid, or inciso-serrate, the serratures minutely 
toothed, but not aristate, the lower pair close to and parallel with the 
rachis. Sori solitary, near the base of the lobes, at first linear- 
reniform, at length round, but not confluent, lndusium jagged, 
white, oblong or reniform. 
