186 
HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. * 
plants became better understood, they were very properly 
separated, and they now, in conjunction with some few 
foreign kinds, form a distinct family circle. The name 
Woodsia was given in compliment to the clever veteran 
English botanist, Joseph Woods, Esq., author of a very 
useful 4 Tourist's Flora/ 
Woodsia ilvensis, B. Brown. 
The Oblong Woodsia. (Plate III. fig. 2.) 
A deciduous species, dying down to the ground annually 
in winter, and reviving with the returning spring. Its very- 
short stems foru tufts, which, if thriving and not disturbed, 
and situated under favourable circumstances, grow into 
masses, large comparatively with its diminutive stature. 
The fronds average about four inches in height, and are less 
frequently found larger than smaller than this. Their form 
is lanceolate, more or less broad ; and they are pinnate, 
the pinnae usually set on nearly or quite opposite in pairs, 
and having an obtusely oblong outline, with a deeply-lobed 
or pinnatifid margin. They are of a thick dull-looking 
texture, and are more or less clothed on both surfaces, but 
especially on the veins beneath, with minute bristle-like 
scales, and shining jointed hairs, among which the sori 
