BRITISH FERNS, - 
81. FLEXILE LADY FERN. Furxitz. 
Pseudathyrium flexile. B. F'. 203. 
The caudex is massive, enduring, its position erect, 
its crown broad, gibbous, scaly: fronds without a 
stalk, linear, lance-shaped, very elongate, very attenu- 
ate, very flexile; pinnate; pinne short, gradually nar- 
rowed, rather blunt, rather distant, deflexed, pinnate, 
nm pairs before they lose their distinctness 
at either extremity; those towards the base gradually 
diminish in size as well as length, and finally become 
almost rudimentary, though their divisions are not 
_ proportionately diminished in number: pinnules dis- 
tinct and apparently separate, yet certainly connected 
by the wing of the midrib: there are seldom more than 
five pairs of pinnules before their distinctness is lost 
in the apical portion of the pinna; t y are narrow at 
the sessile base, and slightly broader upwards nearly 
_ to the tip, so as to render the circumscription of each 
pinnule obscurely pear-shaped or obovate; on each 
side they have usually three strongly developed 
_ ascending teeth, and are also two- or three-toothed at 
