THE HAY-SCENTED BUCKLER FERN, 
Triangular prickly-toothed, or Concave. 
Lastrea amulet :. — Brackenridge. 
The Hay-scented Fern is a plant of from a foot to 
two feet in height, growing in a circle of triangular 
arched or drooping fronds with a crisped appearance, 
from the turning back of the margins of all the seg- 
ments. Its fragrance is like that of new hay, like hay, 
too, more powerful as it dries, and lasting for a long 
time. Its stipes is of about the same length as the 
leafy portion of the frond, clothed with a jagged pale 
brown scales. The fronds are bipinnate, the lowest 
pair of pinnae being always longer and larger than the 
rest, and the pinnules on the inferior side of the pinnae 
always larger than those on the superior. The pin- 
nules are oblong-ovate, the lowest again often divided 
into a series of oblong lobes, mostly decurrent, but 
sometimes slightly stalked, the margin cut into short 
spinuous-pointed teeth. The veins of the pinnules 
alternately branch from a sinuous midvein, and divide 
again into two or three alternate venules, the lowest 
anterior venule bearing a sorus, the exact ramification 
of the veins depending on the degree in which the 
pinnules or lobes are divided. The sori are spread 
