THE ROYAL FERN. 317 
regal name assigned to it. The plant is at once known from all the 
other native species, by its fertile panicle terminating the otherwise 
leafy fronds. There is moreover abundant technical distinction in 
the structure of its spore-cases. 
The Flowering Fern, also known as the Osmund Royal, which is, 
as Dr. Deakin well remarks, the prince among the existing British 
race, grows naturally in wet, springy, or boggy places— 
** Auld Botany Ben was wont to jog 
Thro' rotten slough and quagmire bog, 
Or brimfull dikes and marshes dank 
Where Jack-o"-lanterns play and prank, 
To seek a cryptogamie store 
Of carex, moss, and fungus hoar, 
Of ferns and brakes and such like sights 
As tempt the scientific wights 
On winter's day : but most his joy 
Was finding what's called Osman Roy." 
The species is widely and plentifully dispersed, scattered here and 
there in suitable localities, the whole length and breadth of Britain 
from Cornwall and Suffolk, to Sutherland, Shetland, and the Western 
Isles; it is abundant in many parts of Ireland; and is found in the 
Island of Jersey. Mr. Watson notices that it flourishes on the sea- 
shore sometimes only just above high-water line, and that it is 
seldom seen much above the sea-level in England ; it does however 
reach an elevation of 300 to 600 feet. Dr. Kinahan mentions that 
in Ireland where it is most luxuriant in the west and south, especially 
near the sea, a stunted form of it grows down within the high tidal 
line. The principal recorded habitats are given.in the following 
list :— 
Peninsula. [Â Cornwall : banks of the Tamar near Newbridge, G. 
Maw; Goonhilly Downs near St. Ives; Penryn, G. Dawson; com- 
mon in the low boggy parts of the country. Devonshire: Dawlish ; 
between Budleigh and Exmouth; Watermouth, near Ilfracombe ; 
Holme Chase, near Ashburton; Stoke near Hartland, G. Maw ; 
Chudleigh, on the banks of the Teign; Ivy bs on the Erme ; 
Marwood, Rev. F. Mules. Somersetshire. 
Channel.—Hampshire: frequent in the west. Isle of Wight, 
Rev. G. E. Smith. Dorsetshire: Isle of Purbeck, T. B. Salter. 

