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LASTR.EA CRISTATA. 
LASTR.'E'A CRISTA’TA. 
This Fem has been called by botanists Polypodium 
cristatum and calypteris, Pohystichum cristatum, Lo- 
phodium callipteris, and Aspidium criatatum. In English 
it is called the Crested Fern, Crested Polypody, and 
Crested Shield Fern 
Foot tufted, stout, and far-branching, producing 
fronds from the ends of each root-branch. Fromls 
yellowish-green, several, and in favourable situations 
more than two feet high; very erect, and the general 
outline of the frond line-like, the leaflets very gradually 
decreasing in length. The leaflets clothe rather more 
than one half of the stem, the lower half of the stem 
having upon it many scattered, brown, blunt scales, green 
in front, and channelled, but purple below. The lower 
leaflets are usually opposite, but the upper leaflets are 
alternate. They are very deeply and regularly lobed, 
rather than leafited; the lobes are broad, blunt, sugar- 
loaf shaped, and sharply toothed round their edge, the 
toeth ending in short bristles. The side veius in each 
lobe are much branched, and from the base of each 
main branch rises the vein, at the end of which is the 
fructification; and its masses, somewhat kidney-shaped, 
are in two rows, one on each side the mid vein, 
at a distance equal from that and tho edge of the 
lobe. The cover ( indusium ) of eaoh mass is swollen, 
permanent, and pale lead-coloured. The masses 
usually run together by the time the spores are ripe. 
