April 15. COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 43 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Weathkk neab London in 1855. 
n 
D 
— 
— 
Sun 
Sun Moon Moon’s 
CIock Day of 
M 
W 
ArlvIJj 15—21, Jo50. 
Barometer. 
Thermo. 
Wind. 
Rain in 
Rises. 
Sets. R. & S. | Age. 
bf. Sun. Year. 
Inches. 
15 
To 
Mylsechus brunneus. 
30.305—30.092 
65—92 
w. 
_ 
6 a 5 
54 a 6 3 58 10 
Oaft.3 106 
16 
W 
Cateretes rufilabris. 
30.36;—30.229 
71—41 
W. 
— 
3 
56 4 9 11 
0 18 107 
17 
Tu 
Cateretes bipustulatus. 
30.343-30.323 
65—30 
E. 
— 
1 
58 4 20 12 
0 32 108 
18 
F 
Staphylinus murinus. 
30.342—30.224 
66—23 
E. 
— 
IV 
VII 4 30 13 
0 46 109 
19 
S 
Staphylinus hyhridus. 
30.129—30.005 
67—36 
N.E. 
— 
57 
1 4 40 14 
0 59 110 
20 
SOM 
4 Sunday after Eastbr. 
30.339-30.162 
67-27 
N. 
— 
55 
3 rises. (g) 
1 12 
21 
If 
Sun’s dcclinat., 12° 1' n. 
30.485—30.474 
54—28 
E. 
— 
53 
4 8 a 49 16 
1 25 112 
Meteorology of tiie Week.—A t Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-nine years, the average highest and lowest tern- 
peratures of these days are 5/.8°, and 37.3°, 
respectively. The greatest heat, 77°, occurred on the 19th, in 1854 ; and the lowest cold, 20°, 
on the l6th, in 1847* During the period loO days were fine, and on 90 
rain fell. 
CYSTOTTERIS ANGUSTA'TA. 
This has various English names, and among botanists, 
with still more varied want of certainty, has been placed 
in various genera, or been reduced even to a mere 
variety. 
It is known as the Deep-cut Mountain Bladder Fern, 
as the Stone Polypody, as the Red-stemmed Polypody, 
and in botanical works it is Polypodium rlicelicum. Poly¬ 
podium ilvense, Aspidium fragile, Aspidium rlueticum, 
Cyathea fragilis, var. /3. and Cystopteris fragilis, var. 
anyustata. 
We think that it lias sufficiently distinctive cha¬ 
racteristics to retain it as a species. Root tufted, some¬ 
what creeping, black, with rusty scales, and rootlets long. 
Fronds from six to fifteen inches high, rather numerous, 
erect; stalk dark-red becoming black, nearly half its 
length naked, without any border, slender, and smooth. 
Leaflets bright green, nearly opposite, the lowermost 
rather shorter, and the pairs at greater distances from 
each other than those about the middle of the frond, all 
leafited with scarcely a border down the side of the j 
midrib. Leaflts alternate, spear-head shaped, rather ; 
bluntly pointed, sometimes, however, tapering at the 
end, all deeply cut, with oblong wavy, poiuted segments; 
and the ribs of all somewhat wavy. The segments are 
always long and narrow, never broad, rounded, or egg- 
shaped, but sometimes, though rarely, cloven at the end. 
The leafits on the upper side of each leaflet are larger 
than those on the lower side; the cuts are all along the 
sides of the leafits. These characteristics distinctly dis¬ 
tinguish this Fern from Cystopteris fragilis, and C. 
; dentata. The fructification is round, and smaller, and 
less prominent than in those two species; always 
I continuing distiuct, standing either in solitary masses 
or in pairs, towards the bottom of each cut dividing two 
lobes from each other; at first pale, but finally becoming 
brown. The cover ( indusium ) white, very thin, concave, 
irregularly torn, soon pushed off, or aside, by the com¬ 
paratively large, though not numerous, shining brown 
capsules. 
It is found, but not commonly, in wooded places on 
mountains and on shaded rocks; as near Llanberis, in 
North Wales; at Gordalo, in Craven, Yorkshire; on 
shaded rocks in many parts of Scotland ; on the moun¬ 
tains of Westmorland; on the top of Glyder Mountains, 
on the side overhanging Llyn Ogwen Lake, and near 
Ffynnon felon, and on the Leek Road, about a mile 
from Buxton. 
This Fem was first discovered in Rhastia, whence its 
earliest name of Rhaticum, but it is first mentioned as 
a British Fern by Gerard, if bis Filicula petrcca mas is 
really his name for the present species. There is, how¬ 
ever, much uncertainty about the early history of this 
Fern, and this uncertainty has been thus well-pointed 
out by the late Sir J. E. Smith. 
“ Great confusion has always existed amongst our British 
botanists concerning Polypodium (Cystopteris) rlueticum. 
Hooker has it not. Liglitfoot appears, by what he says in his FI. 
IS'cot. 678, to have been acquainted, like Mr. Dickson, with our 
Cystea (Cystopteris ) anyustata under that name; and he quotes 
Gerarde rightly, justly objecting to Plukenet’s t. 179./. 5. 
Lightfoot’s description is excellent, though lie submits, as I 
have formerly done, to Haller, Weis, and others, who con¬ 
sider it as a variety of our C. fragilis. The late Mr. Davall 
took it for Haller’s it. 1705; but that plant, with many 
errors in the synonyms, is certainly Aspidium dilatation. Our 
Cystea (Cystopteris) anyustata may be n. 1708 of Haller, but 
his references are confused. Mr. Hudson, on seeing Mr. 
Davall’s specimens of the Fern in question, declared it very 
different from his own Polypodium rlueticum, which indeed i 
is Aspidium dumetorum. I have little scruple in referring j 
No. CCCXC1V. Vol XVI. 
