











214 THE BRITISH FERNS. 
also in Holland, Belgium, Germany, the Carpathians, Hungary, 
Transylvania, Croatia, France, Switzerland, Italy and Bootia. 
It is said to grow in the Caucasian range, and in Siberia. It 
also occurs in North America, both in the United States and 
in Canada, where occur two or three forms, one of which is 
the Aspidium lancastriense, and another, common in gardens, is very 
generally mistaken for Aspidium Goldianum. It has also been 
obtained from the Slave River, in North West America. The 
variety uliginosa occurs in Germany as well as in England; and in 
Dahuria. The variety spinulosa is probably not uncommon, but its 
range is not at all accurately known, in consequence chiefly of the 
confusion which has generally existed between this plant and 
L. dilatata, which renders almost all the published statements open 
to doubt. The fragmentary condition, too, of many of the foreign 
specimens preserved in herbaria, renders it impossible to employ to 
the full extent this source of information. The following countries 
and habitats may, we believe, be confidently cited:—Denmark; . 
Sweden; St. Petersburgh and Moscow, in Russia; Great Britain 
and Ireland; France, Switzerland; Germany in various parts; and 
Hungary. We believe we may also here refer specimens in the 
Hookerian herbarium, from Labrador, Boston, and Canada; though, 
according to Dr. Asa Gray, the common American plant of this 
affinity is not spinulosa but intermedia. 
These Ferns grow readily in peaty soil, with abundant moisture ; 
and though not remarkable for elegance, they have a certain dis- 
tinctness of character, and are useful in grouping on account of their 
upright habit of growth. They are increased with tolerable facility 
by the separation of the lateral crowns which are frequently produced. 
The species and its varieties produce occasional multifid varia- 
tions, sometimes consisting in the division of the apices of the 
pinne, sometimes in that of the apex of the frond, but these 
forms cannot rank as permanent varieties, like the following :一 
1. uliginosa (M.). This plant, the Lastrea uliginosa of Newman, 
we regard as a variety of cristata, the only marked difference, in 

