THE SPLEENWORTS. 
THE LADY PERN. 
Athyrium Filix-foemina* — Roth. 
The genus Athyrium holds a place between the 
Asjpidice (or Shield Eerns) and the Asplenice (or 
Spleenworts). Its generally elongated sori mark it, 
however, as belonging rather to the latter group, 
though there is a sufficient approach to the roundish 
kidney shape of Lastrecu to account for its having been 
also attributed to the former. It is, nevertheless, not 
so like to Lastrea as to be mistaken for it, and is dis- 
tinguishable also from the other Aspleniums by its 
annual fronds and its herbaceous texture. 
The Lady Fern, so called because of the peculiar 
delicacy of its fronds contrasted with the masculine 
robustness of the Male Fern, grows like that in plume- 
circlets or coronals from the caudex, which in winter, 
whether close to the ground or a few inches above it, 
# Polypodinm Filix-foemina (Linnceus), Aspidium Filix- 
foemina, Asplenium Filix-foemina, Cystopteris Filix-foemina, &c. 
