14 
[XV] 
HAY-SCEXTED OR BREE’S EERX. 
is the smallest of the group just referred to, and the most interesting, owing to its beautiful 
Wk g reen colour contrasted with a dark purple stem. 
The fronds appear about May, and are cut off by the early frosts. 
The rhizome is tufted, and densely covered with long narrow pale brown scales, as is also the 
stem, which is as long as the frond, the scales are jagged at the end; the colour of the stem is dark 
purple. 
The fronds are from one to two feet in length; they are bi-pinnate, the pinnules being again 
pinnate, and the sub-pinnules deeply pinnatifid; the lower pair of pinnae are much the largest. The 
shape of the frond is triangular or deltoid, the colour pale green; it has a crispy appearance, caused 
by each of the lobes being concave, and the edges curled upwards: on this account this species has 
been named by some authors, Mecurvum; and this crispness renders it particularly difficult to 
prepare for the herbarium. 
The seed is produced in circular clusters on the under surface of the pinnules. 
pMtei 
Eound in shady, rocky places, but of rare occurrence in South Wales, having been found only at 
the Melincourt waterfall, in the Yale of Neath. It is by no means abundant in North Wales, being 
met with occasionally in the Snowdon district; but it occurs on the Holyhead mountain in some 
quantity. 
There are several varieties mentioned of this species, but neither seems to have been found in 
Wales. 
<Mto. 
It grows readily in a loamy soil, requiring plenty of water and shade. 
E 
