210 
HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. 
fleshy body, producing a few coarse spreading roots chiefly 
from its upper extremity. At the top it tapers abruptly 
into a short conical crown. From this crown rises the 
frond, which attains from about one and a half to three 
inches in height, and is divided above at about one-third 
of its height, into a barren leafy branch, and a spicate 
fertile branch. Occasionally a barren radical frond, of 
lanceolate form, accompanies the two-branched frond. The 
stipes is slender, smooth, round, sheathed at the base by 
broad taper-pointed scales, which are dilated below, and 
envelop the crown. The barren branch is spreading, lan¬ 
ceolate, narrowing towards but bluntish at the apex, and 
tapering at the base into a slender petiole; it is from 
three-fourths of an inch to an inch and a half long, some¬ 
what hollow along the centre, from the elevation of its 
margins, thick and fleshy in texture when fresh, so that 
the very slender veins are not seen; they are, however, 
united in very much elongated meshes. The fertile branch 
or spike is somewhat taller than the barren branch, and is 
supported by a footstalk, which is thickened upwards, 
becoming broad, fleshy, and flattened at the base of the 
spike. The spike itself is about half an inch long, linear, 
rather widened a little above the base, with a tapering 
