THE MOUNTAIN BUCKLER FERN, 
Sweet Mountain - Fern, or Heath Fern. 
Lastrea Oreopteris* — Presl. 
The Sweet Mountain Fern is known at once by its 
balsamic scent, the fragrance of which is given ont 
strongly from numerous minute resinous glands on 
the lower surface when the frond is drawn through 
the hand. The fronds are noticeable also for their 
coronal appearance, set on the stem like the feathers 
of a shuttlecock and growing in graceful tufts to two 
or three feet high. They are annual, springing up in 
May and dying off in Autumn ; bright green or 
yellowish, erect, lance-shaped in general outline, and 
pinnate. The stipes is unusually short, the leafy part 
j being continued nearly to the ground, and the lower 
I pinnae becoming so short that the frond tapers down- 
[ ward as much as toward the point. The pinnae are 
generally opposite, narrow, tapering and pinnatifid, 
and bear the sori almost close to the margins, in most 
instances very abundantly. The fronds differ, as was 
said, from L. Thelypteris in the shortness of the lower 
pinnae, and again in the margins being flat and not 
* Lastrea montana (Moore), Polystichum Oreopteris (deCan- 
dolle), Aspidinm Oreopteris, A. odoriferum, Polypodium mon- 
tana, P. fragrans, P. Thelypteris, Phegopteris Oreopteris, &c. 
