THE COMMON HARD FERN. 213 
Caudex stoutish, erect or decumbent, tufted, scaly. Scales narrow 
lanceolate-acuminate, deep tawny brown. Fibres stout, numerous, 
branched, the younger parts densely tomentose. 
Vernation circinate. 
Stipes of the barren fronds usually short, 4. e., one or two inches 
but sometimes four or five inches long, densely scaly at the base, 
and with a few narrow scattered scales upwards, dark purplish 
brown, terminal and adherent to the caudex. Rachis channelled in 
front, rounded and prominent behind. The fertile fronds have 
longer dark-coloured stipites, from five to ten inches long, and the 
rachis is distinctly of a dark purple colour. 
Fronds of two kinds, sterile and fertile, tufted. Sterile fronds from 
six to eighteen inches averaging about a foot in length, one or two 
inches in breadth, spreading or prostrate, dark green, hard coriaceous, 
linear-lanceolate, pectinately-pinnatifid ; the segments linear-oblong, 
flat, somewhat falcately curved, dilated and confluent at their base, 
bluntish or acute at their apex, the margins entire, or rarely when 
very vigorous obscurely lobed, diminishing both above and below ; 
the lower ones small, roundish, often becoming remote; the upper 
ones confluent into-a lanceolate point. Fertile fronds of the same 
form but taller, one to two feet or sometimes nearly three feet high, 
growing from the centre of the tuft, erect pinnate below; the pinne 
or segments linear-acute, contracted to about half the width of the 
barren segments, the lower ones distant, the upper more contiguous, 
and there dilated and confluent at the base. Fronds of intermediate 
character, sparingly. fertile, and but partially or not at all contracted, 
are sometimes produced. 
Venation of the segments of the barren fronds den consisting 
of a stout costa or midvein, producing lateral veins which are once or 
twice forked, the venules extending parallel towards the margin and 
terminating in a small club-shaped head. The venation of the 
fertile fronds is altered in consequence of their contracted nature; 
it consists of a series of veins, which seldom have space to become 
forked, but are lost in the continuous longitudinal sporangiferous 
receptacle which runs parallel with and very near to the midvein. 
In the less contracted fertile fronds, the venules are, however, con- . 
tinued towards the margin exterior to the receptacle. 

