80 THE BRITISH FERNS. 
a distinct membrane was much clearer in molle. This supports 
your view to some extent; but, all things considered, is it sufficient 
to remove the plant from others so evidently its allies?" The 
majority of the sori, indeed all of them, with few exceptions, and 
. those exceptions generally, if not always, having strongly marked 
imperfect or abnormal characters, appear tous to be the round 
naked masses of Polypodium, so that we have no alternative, repu- 
diating as we do its separation on characters derived merely from 
habit and resemblance, but to retain this plant in that genus, a 
course in which many at least of our best botanists coincide. 
This plant has been as yet, so far as relates to the United King- 
dom, found only in the Highlands of Seotland, where, in the 
mountainous districts of the counties of Forfar, Aberdeen, and Perth, 
as we learn from memoranda communicated by Dr. G. Lawson, it: 
is one of the most abundant of Ferns, exceeded perhaps only in - 
frequency by Lastrea montana ; in the Clova district, descending to 
about 2000 feet above the sea, perhaps lower, and. associated with 
Athyrium; and in Aberdeenshire, ascending nearly or quite to 4000 
feet. Mr. James Backhouse, jun., also states that in the Clova 
mountains, it occurs in company with Athyrium, at from 2000 to 
3000 feet elevation, above which, at from 3000 to 4000 feet, the 
latter disappears, and P. alpestre becomes abundant. Mr. H. C. 
Watson, by whom it was found so long since as 1841, but unde- 
termined, describes the localities in which he gathered it thus * :一 
“Jn July 1841 I gathered two fronds of this Fern in the great 
corrie of Ben Aulder, a lofty mountain situate on the west side of 
Loch Erricht, Inverness-shire. Another frond of the same species 
was picked at some other spot in the neighbourhood of Loch 
Erricht, probably on the hills between Ben Aulder and the north 
end of the lake, but it might be on the hills of Drumochter 
Forest, eastward of the lake, and if the latter, the station would be 
within Moray, or eastern Inverness. In 1844 I brought a frond 
from Canlochen Glen in Forfarshire. These specimens (except the 
second from Ben Aulder given to Mr. Babington) remained in my 
herbarium until 1851, first doubtfully labelled, and then tempo- 
rarily forgotten. Their close resemblance to small fronds of Athyrium 
* Watson, in Cybele Britannica, iii. 253. 

