THE MOUNTAIN BUCKLER, 
Sweet Mountain, ob Heath Pern. 
Lastrea Oreopterisi* — Presl. 
The Sweet Mountain Fern is known at once by its 
balsamic scent, the fragrance of which is given out 
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 shuttle cock 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 usually short, the leafy part 
being continued nearly to the ground, and the lower 
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), Aspidium Oreopteris, A. odoriferum, Polypodium mon- 
tana, P. fragrans, P. Thelypteris, Phegopteris, Oreopteris, &c. 
