LASTllEA.
o I
t 1
upright, and from one to two feet in height. It is perhaps
the most elegantly divided member of its family, the pinnules
being all doubly and very evenly toothed. The fronds
issue from the crown of a comparatively thick stem, and are
annual in their duration, greeting the approach of summer
with the fresh green of youth, and shrinking dead and
shrivelled from the icy touch of winter. There are two
forms of frond—the one narrowly triangular, the other lanceolate,
and they are bipinnate, with narrow tapering pinnae,
and oblong blunt pinnules, which are cut into broad rounded
segments, again notched into a varying number of pointed
but not spinulose teeth. The stipes is densely scaly.
The veining is very similar to that of the large variety of
Filix-mas; the pinnules having a flexnous midvein, with
alternate venules again pinnately branched. The clusters
of spore-cases are borne on the lowest anterior branch of each
venule, that is, on the lowest veinlet on the side towards the
apex of the pinnule, and they are covered by a kidneyshaped
indusium, which does not soon fall away. Over the
fronds are scattered numerous small sessile glands, which,
when slightly bruised, give out a faint and not unpleasant
odour.
This Pern seems confined to the limestone districts of the