Lastrea Dilatata, Presl. 
Aspidium Spinulosum Sw., Hooker and Arnott. 
Lophodium Multiflorum, Newman. 
ROTH’S FERN. 
Root — Black and wiry ; caudex strong and tufted. 
Frond — Ovato-lanceolate, deltoid or triangular-ovate, 
bipinnate ; from six inches to four feet in length, of a deep 
green. 
In sheltered places among rocks, the frond becomes con- 
tracted, the costae enlarged, and the pinnae convex, and 
thickened : while in wet and boggy places, the pinnules are 
broader, thinner, and paler, turned up at the edges, the 
stipes thickly clad with rough taper-pointed scales. This 
last form is Lastrea Fenisaecii of Babington, L. recurva of 
Newman, a marked and elegant variety, not yet recorded as 
a county fern, although found near Ashbourne on the Staf- 
fordshire side. Dr. Hooker, Bentham, and others, regard it 
as a variety of L. dilatata, which, probably, upon cultivation 
from spores, it would prove to be. 
Stipes — About one-third the length of the frond, thickly 
covered with large brown scales, the centre of which has a 
keel- shaped thickening, consisting of enlarged cells. 
Pinnae — Nearly opposite, oblong-linear; the lower pinnae 
nearly triangular, pinnate. 
Pinnules — Pinnatifid, the inferior (or lower) ones are 
longer than the superior (or upper) ones, the lower pinnules 
have distinctly stalked and serrated lobes ; all the lobes are 
serrated, and terminate with a soft spine ; the four or five 
middle pinnae in large specimens have the first lobe of the 
inferior pinnule shorter, broader, and more serrated than 
the rest. 
Venation — Lateral veins, between the division of each 
pinnule, forked. 
Fructification — Capsules, with a fringed kidney-shaped 
involucre, on the anterior branch of the lateral veins. 
Habitat — Grows freely on woody slopes, chiefly on a 
sandy soil. 
B 
