THE MALE FERN. 197 , 
The fronds, at least while young, are glandular and fragrant; they 
are pinnate ; the pinne scarcely again pinnate, the lowest pinnules 
only being sometimes separated, the remainder always decurrent; the 
points of the pinnules are turned upwards so that the upper surface 
of the pinne is concave. The pinnules are large for the size of the 
plant, broad, rounded at the apex, the margin unequally crenate, or 
crenate-lobate, the lobes having blunt obscure teeth. It is allied to 
the variety pumila, but differs in the larger size of its pinnules, 
which gives it a coarser aspect, and it is not so much recurved. 
The sori are for the most part uniserial on each side the midrib of 
the pinne; and have indusia which at least while fresh, are 
margined with glands, as in pumila. This rare form has been found 
in the habitats below named—Snowdon: Cwm Glas, Rev. J. M. 
Chanter ; also in the same district, W. Pamplin. Durham: Teesdale, 
J. Backhouse. Yorkshire: Ingleborough, Rev. G. Pinder. Lanca- 
shire: Conistone, Miss Beever. Westmoreland, G. B. Wollaston. 
Cumberland, Rev. G. Pinder. Gloucestershire: Wyck, Bab. Man. 
Forfarshire: Glen Isla, J. Backhouse. Kerry: Killarney, R. 
Barrington. 
14. pumila (M.). This is a permanently small dwarf erect plant, 
remarkable among other characteristics, for the recurving of the 
points of its pinne, and of its pinnules, which gives to its upper 
surface a concave appearance. It usually grows from nine inches 
to a foot in height, and rarely, when very vigorous, reaches the 
height of a foot and half; the stipes being two to three inches long, 
and furnished with scales which are fimbriate on the margin. 
The fronds are lanceolate, pmnate. The pinne are short, bluntish, 
rather deflexed, scarcely ever more than deeply pinnatifid, the basal 
pinnules only being sometimes but rarely semi-detached. The pin- . 
nules or lobes are small oblong, obtuse, obscurely crenated, convex, 
but recurved at the points, so that the pinne are concave, the points 
of the pinne being also recurved, so that the frond itself is concave. 
The venation is comparatively simple: the costa or midvein, which 
is carried up each lobe, produces veins of which the lower are once 
forked, the upper simple. In fronds of ordinary growth, scarcely 
any but the anterior branch of the lowest anterior vein in each lobe 
or pinnule bears a sorus, and the sori then form an almost simple 

