has a few scales of a blunt, ovate form, a membranous texture,
and an uniform light brown colour. The pinnæ are
elongate-triangular in their outline, the broadest occurring
at the base of the frond, the upper ones becoming gradually
narrower, but all of the same general form, namely, widest
at the base, gradually tapering to the apex. They are not,
in the usual form of the species, divided quite down to their
midrib, so as to become, in technical terms, pinnate, but
each segment is attached by the entire width of its base, and
connected by a narrow extension of its base with the seg-
ment next behind it; all the segments having their apices
inclined rather towards the apex of the pinna. The lobes
of the pinnæ are themselves oblong, with a rounded apex,
and a crenately toothed margin.
The midvein of the lobes takes a tortuous course, and
gives off lateral branches which divide into several secondary
branches, one only of which, that nearest the apex of the
lobe, bears a sorus. The fructification is confined to the
upper portion of the frond, and often remarkably so ; less
frequently it extends downwards to the pair of pinnæ next
above the basal ones. The spots of spore-cases are covered
by a kidney-shaped scale or indusium, having an entire
margin, and become mature in August and September.
This species occurs only on boggy heaths, and that in but
few places in Britain, confined, we believe, to the counties
of Nottinghamshire, Cheshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk. It is
easily cultivated, either in a pot, or planted in a damp, somewhat
shady situation, and preferring a peaty soil.
"A Eern which has, within the last year or two, attracted
some attention, and which Mr. Newman has called Lastrea
uliginosa, we notice here as a variety of Lastrea cristata.
It is exactly intermediate in its general appearance and characters
between that species and Lastrea spinulosa, and
would perhaps, at first sight, be rather considered a state of
the latter than of the former. In the mode in which its
young fronds are rolled up, and in the arrangement of its
veins, it however agrees best with cristata, and for this reason
we prefer to consider it a variety of that species approaching
spinulosa, with which latter it agrees most closely in the
form of its pinnules.
This Eern forms a stout crown or root-stock, having a
tendency to multiply by lateral off-shoots. Erom the crown
the fronds spring up in a circle, and grow nearly erect to
the height of from two to three feet; these bear the fructification.
Other fronds, however, are produced, which are
barren, and these do not grow so erect, nor put on the same