100 
CVSTOPTERIS ALPI.VA. 
Sir J. E. Smith thus speaks of its discovery and 
history:— 
“ The lowland station of this Fern, close to a much-fre. 
quented road at Low Layton, where I have, in company with 
the late Mr. Forster, seen it covering great part of a brick 
wall, may be supposed analogous to its places of growth in 
France; but we seek in vain for any information on this 
head either in Vaillant or Lamarck, nor is it evident that 
the latter ever found the plant. The wall at Layton has 
been repaired, and the Fern almost destroyed. On Snowdon 
it is said to be very scarce, though Mr. Wilson, with his 
usual bounty, has sent me an ample supply of specimens of 
various sizes. He describes it as “ varying greatly in size 
and appearance, but always distinct from the fragilis." The 
cover, as that gentleman remarks, “ is in both species, con- 
nected with the frond by its base only, at the lower side of 
the mass of capsules, that is, on the side next the base of the 
segment of the leaflet;" which agrees with my observations. 
This Fern is well compared by Hobart, in Morison, to the 
Cicutaria of old authors, our ChierophyUum sylvestre, 
so common on banks in the spring. It is unquestionably 
distinct from every other British Fern, though the proper 
name and synonyms were not discovered till after its ap¬ 
pearance in Engl. But., where I fell into the same error with 
some foreign botanists. Linnteus once thought it a Swedish 
plant, but erroneously, nor had ho au original or nuthentio 
specimen. 
“ The remarks of Dr. Richardson, inserted between 
brackets, by Dillenius, in the third edition of Ray’s Synopsis, 
12G. n. 8. Ed. 8., certainly do not answer to the present 
species; as my late friend the Rev. Hugh Davies, an ex¬ 
cellent observer, first pointed out to me. 
“ John Bauhin’s synonym, which Ray quoted with doubt, 
appears, by the really excellent figure, to be unquestionably 
