38 
Plate I, fig. 8. 
* * “ Sweet to muse upon His still displayed, 
Infinite skill in all that He has made, 
To trace in nature’s most minute design. 
The signature and stamp of power divine. 
Contrivance intricate, expressed with ease. 
Where unassisted sight no beauty sees.” — Cowper. 
Dark-scaled Shield Pern. Lastrea dilatata. We are now 
come to a portion of the Shield Perns which assume a 
feathery or plumose appearance. This and the two following 
species are a great ornament to our shady woods and deep 
gullies and hedge-banks. This plant grows in great lux- 
uriance in this locality. It thrives in rich moist and shady 
situatioDs. None of our Perns exceed it in height except 
the Common Brake (Pteris aquilina) and the Eoyal Plower- 
ing Pern (Osmunda Eegalis). It is tripinnate, i.e,, not 
only the branches are divided but the branches of the 
branches likewise. There is another peculiarity in this Pern, 
viz. the two or three lowest pinnae or branches are 
always shorter than those above. The scales on the 
lower part of the stalk have likewise a dark centre 
with transparent margins as represented in this 
woodcut. The root-stock is large and upright, some- 
times a foot above the surface, and covered with dark 
scales. The leaflets are deep green, generally 
drooping, and never have the edge curled upwards. 
The lobes or divisions of the leaflets are blunt, witTi 
a little spine on each. The stalk is thick at the 
base and as long as the frond, covered with these 
dark centred scales. The frond is egg-shaped or lance- 
shaped, Plate I, fig. 8. The lower pinnse are triangular. The 
upper are less so. The uppermost are nearly linear. When 
the plant is in bud and not quite unfolded, it does not hang 
its summit down like a shepherd’s crook or a rhinoceros’ 
trunk, as is the case with the Male Pern. The end of the 
bud turns to the right and left making a loop or ring, 
and assumes with its dark scales a very grotesque and pecu- 
liar form. The cover of the fruit is circular with a slit in 
it, (the mark of the genus) and when seen through a lens 
or microscope is found to have stalked glands on the edges. 
