THE MALE FERN. 188 
some respects like L. rigida, but obviously different in many 
others. 
This is one of our most common and most widely-dispersed Ferns, 
growing abundantly in sylvestral and rupestral situations over the 
whole of England, Wales, Scotland, and lreland, as well as in 
the Northern and Western Isles, and in Guernsey and Jersey. 
According to Mr. Watson, it ascends to an elevation of 1500 feet 
in the Highlands, but is rare above the agrarian zone. The varieties 
incisa and paleacea have been gathered in so many, and such widely 
separate localities, that there is reason to believe them nearly, if 
not quite as generally dispersed as that we have taken as the typical 
plant. These three forms are indeed so common that, notwith- 
standing their very obvious differences, it is probable that many 
persons take them indifferently for the common Filio-mas. 
The Male Fern appears to be abundant over the whole of 
Europe; as are also, probably, the Incised and the Golden-scaled 
forms of it. Thus, for example, the range of the species is known 
to extend in Europe from Scandinavia and Russia to Spain, Italy, 
and Crete; and in Asia from the Ural Mountains and the Caucasus, 
to the Siberian chain of the Altai and the neighbourhood of Lake 
Baikal, occurring about Erzeroum in Armenia, and extending along 
the chain of the Himalaya, from Kumaon through Nepal to Assam. 
Tt is also found in Northern Africa, and in Madeira; and, in the 
New World, in Newfoundland, California, Mexico, Guatemala, 
New Grenada, Equador, Peru, Brazil, and the Caraccas. It is 
not found, we believe, in the United States. It is difficult to allot 
exactly their several stations to the three principal forms assumed 
by this common plant, but it is most probable that each of them 
has a very similar range. The Incised form, Aspidium affine of 
Fischer and Meyer, is found in Russia in various places in the 
region of the Caucasus and in Georgia—Elizabethpol, Karabagh, 
Lenkoran; and in the New World, in Mexico. The Golden-scaled 
form, varying with darker, often very dark-coloured scales, repre- 
sented by the names Aspidiwm paleaceum of Don, and A. patentis- 
simum of Wallich, is found in several parts of India—the Himalaya, 
Kumaon, and Mussoree; in Ceylon, and in Java; in Madeira, 

