FEENT COMBES. 
91 
base to a mere leafy excrescence close to the ground, 
the stem being very short ; pinnate or once di- 
vided, deeply cleft. Sori placed like beads under 
the edges of the lobes, which do not turn back over 
them as in Thelypteris. The whole under surface 
covered with small golden-coloured globules, which, 
when bruised, produce a faint resinous odour. 
Stem scaly ; scales, when young, of an exquisite 
silver-colour, afterwards becoming brown. 
Tew things in nature are more beautiful than a 
great number of these plants before they are un- 
folded. The grass seems strewn with silver balls, 
and as you reluctantly tread on them, and brush 
by them, the scent is delicious ; you may chance 
to see close by large masses of the golden-headed 
Lastrea Filix-mas paleacea^ when the contrast be- 
tween the silver and golden ferns enhances the 
beauty of each. 
Lastrea Oreopteris is by no means uncommon in 
Devonshire, but it is very generally mistaken by 
young botanists for Filix-mas, which it greatly re- 
sembles when mature ; but the marginal seed, and 
the extreme narrowness of the base, will prove in- 
fallible marks by which it may be recognized; 
when old, it seems to lose its golden globules and 
its scent with them. 
Though called a Mountain Tern — and it certainly 
