THE MOUNTAIN BUCKLER FERN. 171 
Stipes short, stout, glandular, and covered with ovate and lan- 
ceolate pale brown membranaceous scales; terminal and adherent 
to the caudex. Rachis scaly below, the scales becoming finer and 
more hair-like upwards; clothed abundantly with sessile glands. 
Fronds from one to three feet or more in height, the smaller 
three inches, the larger eight to ten inches or more in breadth, 
numerous, erect, terminal, bright green or often yellowish, clothed 
beneath with a profusion of small sessile resinous glands, which ` 
give out an agreeable balsamic fragrance; lanceolate, much ta- 
pered towards the base as well as towards the apex, pinnate. Pinne 
opposite or alternate, numerous; the lower ones more distant, very 
short, obtusely triangular; those higher up gradually lengthening 
till about the middle of the frond, where they are linear-lanceolate, 
or tapering from a broad base to a long narrow point; the upper 
ones again are shorter, but also narrower; all deeply pinnatifid. 
Lobes flat, oblong, obtuse, entire or occasionally crenated, some- 
times slightly faleate, the basal ones longest. 
Venation of the lobes consisting of a flexuous costa or midvein, 
producing alternate veins, which are simple or forked; the venules 
extend to the margin, and bear the sori near their apices. 
Fructification on the back of the fronds, and most abundant on 
the upper half. Sori moderate-sized, circular, produced near the 
end of the venules, and forming a submarginal series, often con- 
fluent. Indusium small, thin, of no definite shape, roundish, jagged, 
fugacious, often very imperfect, sometimes wanting. Spore-cases 
numerous, brown, obovate. Spores roundish or oblong, slightly 
granulated. 
Duration. The caudex is perennial. The fronds are annual, 
growing up in the spring about May, and becoming destroyed by 
the autumnal frosts. 
This fragrant Fern may be at once distinguished by its balsamic 
scent; as well as by the short lower pinn®, which extend down 
almost to the caudex of the pinnato-pinnatifid, marginally dot- 
fruited fronds. These fronds grow in tufts. The indusia are 
generally very small, and soon perish or fall away ; they sometimes 
even appear to be wanting, but the plant is too closely allied to 

