LASTRASA CRISTATA. 
143 
The spores are at first black, but they become rusty 
as they ripen. 
In very luxuriant specimens, and in specimens grow¬ 
ing in very shaded situations, this Fern attains a height 
of even three feet, and the leaflets are wider apart. 
This is one of our rarest Ferns. It has been found on 
boggy heaths, among coarse grass, at the Lows, on Holt 
Heath; at Fritton, near Yarmouth, in Suffolk, and Sur- 
lingham Hoad, near Norwich, in Norfolk ; among Alder 
bushes, at Westleton, and at Bexley, near Ipswich, in 
Suffolk: on Oxton Bogs, in Nottinghamshire; in 
Huntingdonshire; near Madeley, in Staffordshire; and 
on Wybunbury Bog, in Cheshire. In Ireland it has 
been discovered on the estate of Lord Gough, at Rathro- 
nan, near Clonmel. 
We believe this to be Dr. Johnson’s Filix masramosa 
pinnulis dentalis. He says, it then (1633) grew " plen¬ 
tifully in the boggy, shadowy moors near Durnford 
Abbey, in Sussex, and also on the moist, shadowy 
rocks by Maple-durham, near Petersfield, in Hampshire; 
and I have found it often on the dead, putrefied bodies 
and stems of old, rotten Oaks, in the moors Near the 
old plants I have observed very many small, young 
plants growing, which came by the falling of the seed 
from their dusty scales; for I believe all herbs have 
seeds in themselves to produce thoir kinds. Gen. i. 11 
and 12.” (Oerarde's Herbal, cd. by Johnson, 1129.) Ray, 
in his Ilistoria Plantarum, also says, that Mr. Goodyer 
had found it not only in Sussex, but in many other 
pluces in England. 
