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C t s t o f t e e i s e e t u s a , Decaisne, Jacqmm. Voy. dans V Ind. 176, t . 177.
C y s to p t e e i s o h i lb n s i s , and C. f e a g i u s , v. o h i l e n s i s , Féo, Oen. Fil. 299, 300.
P o ly p o d ium d e n t a t u m , Dickson, P l. Cryyt. Brit. fasc. iii. 1, t. 7, fig. 1.
P o ly p o d ium P o n t e d e ræ , Allioni, Fl. Pedem. ii. 286. Swartz, Sgn. Pil. 68.
(Scguier, Pl. Veron. Supp. t . 1 , fig. 2 .)
PoLY-PODiUM TENEiiEiMUM, Poiret, Elle. Bot. v. 536.
A s p id ium d en tatum , Swartz, Syn. F il. 69. WiUdaum, Sp. Plant, v. 273.
Sprengel, Sgsi. Veg. iv . 1 0 4 .
A s p id ium P o ntederæ, Willdenow, %>. Plant, y. 237. Poiret, Enc. Supp. ii.
518. Nyman, Syllog. Fl. Europ. 432.
A s p id ium colobodon, Kunze, “ Coll. P l. Chil. i. n. 266 ; ” according to Kunzo.
A t h y e ium P o ntederæ, Desvaux, Prod. 266.
A t h y e ium fum a r io id es , Presl, Bel. Iloe n k . i. 39, t. 6, fig. 2.
A t h y e iu m d e n t a t u m . Gray, Nat. A rr. B rit. PI. ii. 11.
Cy a th ea d en tata . Smith, Fl. Brit, iii, 1141 ; Id ., Eng. Bot. xxiii. t. 1588.
C y athea fr a g il is . Both, Fl. Germ. iii. 94.
Cystea d en ta ta , Smith, Eng. Fl. 2 ed. iv. 287.
Cy clo pteeis d en tata. Gray, Nat. A rr. Bril. PI. in <
Var. Dickieana : pinnæ deflexed, overlapping ; pinnules crowded,
broad, obtuse, deourrent, very slightly toothed, or bluntly lobed
with the lobes scarcely toothed ; sori suhmarginal, distinct. [Plate
o n B.]
C y s t o p t e r i s f r a g i l i s , v. D i c k i e a n a , Moore, Handb. Brit. Perns, 1 ed. 81 ;
2 ed. 73 ; 3 ed. 234 ; Id ., Bot. Gaz. i. 810 ; Id ., Ferns o f Gt. BrU. Nature
Printed, t. 46 A. fig. 5, 6. Hooker & AmoU, Brit. Fl. 7 ed. 587.
Cystopteris D ic k ie a n a , Sim, Gard. Jo um . 1848. 308. Newman, Phxjtol.
1851, App. xxvi. ; Id ., Hist. Brit. Ferns, 3 ed. 93. Houlston <h Moore,
Gard. Mag. Bot. iii. 315, with plate. Lowe, Nat. Hist. Ferns, vii. t. 83.
C y s t o p t e r i s d e n t a t a , v. D i c k i e a n a , BaUngton, Man. Brit. Bot. 3 ed. 412.
'■y, Ferns o f Gt. Brit. 39, t. 22.
Caudex short, tufted, decumbent, slowly spreading, scarcely creeping,
i.e., advancing lateraUy by the successive projection of the
fronds, which form a tuft at the extremity; somewhat scaly. Scales
pale brown, lanceolate. id'Jres branched, wiry, numerous.
Vernation circinate.
Stipes slender, brittle, readily breaking away from the caudex,
dark brown at the base, and there furnished with a few narrow
lanceolate scales, paler or green and smooth upwards ; terminal aud
adherent to the caudex.
Fronds from three or four to twelve or eighteen inches in length,
erect, herbaceous, dull green, smooth, oblong-lanceolate, bi-piunate,
occasionally sub-bipinnate, or rarely tripinnate. Pinnm ovate-lancco-
late or oblong-lanceolate, with tho pinnules usually distinct, but
sometimes more or less deourrent or oonneoted by the wing of the
raohis. Pinnules, iu the more typical forms, ovate at the base of
the pinnæ, oblong towards the apex, generally acute but sometimes
bluntish; the larger ones deeply pinnatifid, with oblong toothed
lobes, the smaUor ones inoiso-dentate or more shaUowly toothed, the
teeth generally acute.
Venation of the larger pinnules consisting of a flexuous costa or
midvein, from which a branch or rein proceeds along each lobe,
giving off secondary branches or venules, mostly simple, one of
which proceeds to the tip of each marginal tooth. The smaller
pinnules more or less resemble the larger of these lobes, and are also
similar as regards their venation.
Fructification scattered over the whole back of the frond. Sori
nnmerous, roundish, indusiate, medial on the veins and borne on
nearly all their branches in fully fructified fronds, and hence in the
more divided forms appearing to be scattered without order over the
whole surface, hut in the less divided forms, and often in the lobes of
the larger ones, they are more evidently placed in a line towards the
margin ; in the more typical forms they are situated nearer the midrib
than the margin, and often in age become confluent. Indusium a
smooth dehoate hooded membrane, attached behind the sorus, either
truncate and thus roundish, or prolonged at the point and thus
acutely or aouminately ovate ; at first they are inflected forwards
over the spore-cases, hut they soon become reflexed and shrivelled ;
the anterior margin is entire, or split into narrow segments. Spore-
cases roundish obovate. Spores round or ohlong, strongly echinate.
Puration. The caudex is perennial. The fronds are annual,
appearing in April or May, and quickly arriving at maturity ; these
are followed hy others in succession through the summer. The
fronds are destroyed by the early frosts of autumn.
When viewed as a collective species, and it cannot be satisfactorily
viewed in any other light, this Fern is easily recognised by its small
slender fragile bipinnate ohlong-laneeolate fronds, and the peculiar
hooded or semi-calyciform indusia, which in the early stages of
il
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