bipinnate; pinnae ovate, obtuse, subdeflexed; segments broad, obovate or 
ovate, obtuse, crenate, crowded, often overlapping each other. 
Cystopteris Dickieana. Sim in Gardeners' Joui'n. 1848, p. 308. Newm. Brit. 
Ferns , ed. 3. p. 93. 
Cystopteris fragilis, Dickieana, Moore , Brit. Ferns , Nat. Print, t. 46./. 5. 
Nab. Bocks and walls, throughout hilly and mountainous regions, especially in 
the west of England, and generally throughout Scotland and Ireland. 
How very variable is this species, any one can testify who has 
felt it his duty to examine the individuals from different locali¬ 
ties in our own country, and from the different parts of the world 
which this plant is now known to inhabit. See too the nume¬ 
rous and various synonyms of authors, especially the careful list 
drawn up by Mr. Thomas Moore, and given in his ‘ British Ferns, 
Nature-Printed/ the different names alone amounting to fifty- 
seven, and this exclusive of the older authors. Eight varieties are 
there enumerated. We have contented ourselves with noting 
three of them : but the two first gradually pass into each other; 
and the third, though bearing copious fructification, owes pro¬ 
bably much of its abnormal character to growing in a very wet 
shady place, as where it was first found by Professor Dickie, on 
dripping rocks “ in a cave at Cove, near Aberdeen. 5 ’ 
In regard to exotic localities, there would not be space here to 
enumerate them. I must refer to my ‘ Species Filicum, 5 where 
they are given as Europe and Northern Asia, and in various 
parts of North and South America, to which may now be added 
South Africa and New Zealand (in the latter country recently 
found by Dr. Sinclair and W. J. Locke Travers, Esq.). 
I trust our figures, showing the extremes of the British forms, 
will now remove all difficulty in determining this species. 
Plate 23. Eig. 1. Plant of Cystopteris fragilis, Bernh.,— natural size. 2. 
Fertile pinna,— magnified. 3. Sorus and involucre,— more magnified. 4. Fer¬ 
tile frond of Cystopteris fragilis , Bernh., var. Bickieana , seen from above,— 
natural size. 5. Pinnule, with sori,— magnified. 
