Lastrea Oreopteris, Presl. 
Lastrea Montana, Newman and Moore. 
Aspidium Oreopteris, Sw., Hooker and Arnott. 
SWEET MOUNTAIN SHIELD FERN. 
Root — Radicles strong, tough, and penetrating ; caudex 
thick, tufted, creeping, scaly. 
Frond — From one to three feet in length, bright green, 
lanceolate, pinnate, tapering to the base; the seven lower 
pairs of pinnae becoming gradually more narrow, the lower- 
most even in full-grown Specimens being little more than 
half-an-inch long. 
Stipes — Short (about one-seventh the length of the 
frond), moderately covered with light brown scales. 
Pinnae — Linear-lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid, opposite, 
clothed beneath with resinous, fragrant glands. 
Pinnules — Pinnules rounded, and slightly crenate. 
Venation — Lateral veins alternate ; the costse termi- 
nating with a fork ; the two veins next the extremity 
simple, the remainder forked. 
Fructification — Clusters of capsules circular, near the 
extremity of each branched or simple vein, giving to the 
pinnule the appearance of a marginal braiding. Involucres 
small, or wanting. 
Habitat — In mountainous districts, generally in boggy 
ground. Plentiful in the High Peak ; found also on the 
sandstone and shale in the neighbourhood of Matlock and 
Ashbourne. 
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