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326 THE BRITISH FERNS. 
rows along each of these segments near the margin, smooth, 
spherical, without any apparent ring or reticulations, two-valved; 
bursting transversely, golden brown when mature. Spores smooth, 
roundish more or less triangular, pale-coloured. 
Duration. The crowns and roots are doubtless perennial. The 
fronds are annual, growing up in April or May, and becoming 
fully grown in June, afterwards gradually drying up and perishing 
with the summer’s drought. | 
The ordinary state of the Moonwort may be known by the double 
row of fan-shaped pinne which form the sterile branch of its frond. 
Tt is not easily distinguished from the herbage among which it grows, ` 
and on that account is probably often passed over without recogni- 
tion. Mr. Wilson, long since, observed that within the stem of 
the growing frond, at its base, the frond for the ensuing year is 
enclosed, and again within this, also at its base, the frond for the next 
following year. Mr. Newman also, who subsequently examined an 
abundant supply of specimens, found the frond of the ensuing year 
in every respect perfectly formed, indeed, exactly in the state in 
which it is found in the early spring before development; while the 
frond for the next following year, though less perfectly formed, also 
had the fruitful and leafy portions distinct from each other. "These 
observations being made in May, while the plant was still growing, 
the fronds for three successive years were distinguishable at the 
same time. ` 
A widely-diffused, but local species, found here and there over 
the whole of England, Wales, and Scotland, extending to the Islands 
of Orkney and Shetland. It has been less frequently found in 
Ireland, but is reported thence from all the provinces. It is found 
in dry open elevated pastures and waste lands, generally skirting the 
bushes which occur in such localities. Though abundant in some 
of its habitats, and general in its distribution, it can hardly be con- 
sidered as a common species. Its altitudinal range is stated to 
extend from the coast level to an elevation of nearly 3000 feet above 
the sea. The plant referred to rutaceum has been gathered on the 
sands of Barry, Forfarshire. Mr. Newman gives Westmoreland 

