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the rachis is throughout naked, shining, and nearly black ; the
branches, or pinnæ, are alternate, and on these are the pinnulæ,
also alternate, and each on a distinct i'oot-stalk : botanists
describe these pinnulæ as wedge-shaped, or fan-shaped, hut
their form is not uniform, and often varies greatly in the same
frond. The fronds are fertile and barren. "VVlien fertile, the
exterior margin of each pinnula is divided into a number of
lobes, the terminal portion of which is bleached, scale-like, and
reflexed, and hears the thecæ in somewhat circular masses on its
internal surface : this reflexed margin, and also the situation of
the veins, is shown in the detached pinnula to the left of the cut
ill the preceding page ; the veins divide frequently, and without
regularity, and run into the bleached reflexed portion of the
lobe, ceasing before its extreme margin, and each hearing a mass
of thecæ at its extremity ; this will he seen on reference to the
lower figure of the cut in the preceding page, which represents
only one lobe or division of the pinnula: the reflexed
portion turned hack, and showing the masses of thecæ, is
unshaded. When barren, which occurs but
seldom, the margins of the pinnulæ, instead
of being bleached and reflexed, are sharply
serrated (as represented in the annexed figure),
and perfectly green to the extremity : with this
exception, the fertile and barren fronds are
similar. When the frond has passed maturity, and approaches
decay, the pinnulæ of this fern fall off like the leaves of phæno-
gamous plants, the rachis remaining hare and leafless, and
assuming the appearance of a hunch of strong bristles.
Mr. Ball, of Dublin, informs me that this fern is so abundant
in the South Isles of Arran, that the inhabitants gather it, and
use a decoction of the fronds instead of tea : the same gentleman
pointed out to me a remarkable property it possesses, when
cultivated on Mr. Ward’s plan, of checking communication with
the outer air by means of a glass cover ;—the
lobes of the pinnulæ become viviparous at the
extremities, the seeds actually vegetating while
young plants taking root
like parasites in the substance of the old one:
from a specimen, in which this peculiarity was
A clearly exhibited, I sketched the figure in the
margin. .
HABD FEBN.
L o m a r ía S p i c a n t .—Desveux, Presl, Sadler.
Osmunda Spicant.—Linneus, Bolton, Berkenhout, Lightfoot,
, Hudson.
Blechnum Spicant.—Both, Withering.
Blechnum Boreale.—Swartz, Smith, Hooker, Galpine, Mackay,
Gray, Francis.
l o c a l i t i e s .
E n g la n d . .
W a l e s . I Universally distributed over waste ground, b ut particularly abundant in moist and
S co t la nd . | mountainous districts.
I r e l a n d . )
T h e limits of the genus Blechnum, in which our present plant
has usually been placed, appear, less settled, and the characters
less precisely determined, than those of any other Linnean
■group. The separation by Willdenow of the major part of the
species, under the name Lomaria, does not appear to have been
managed with that author’s usual judgment. In his “ Species
Plantarum,” he retains our only British example (the Osmunda
Spicant of Linnæus) in his genus Blechnum,. the species of
which stand th u s: 1. Unilaterale; 2. Boreale (Spicant, Lin.);
3. Onocleoides ; and seventeen others. Presl, in his “ Ten-
tamen Pteridographiæ,” removes Spicant to the genus Lomaria,
and places it as the type, although he describes the genus as
having marginal thecæ, which L. Spicant certainly has not.
Sadler, in his little monograph of the Ferns of Hungary, &c.
also describes Lomaria as having marginal thecæ and indusium,
yet gives hut one species.-—L. Spicant. Mr. Smith, of the Kew
Botanic Gardens, restricts the genus Blechnum to those species
in which the lateral veins are continued beyond the line of
thecæ, and to the margin of the pinna ; and the genus Lomaria,
to those in which the lateral veins terminate in the line of
thecæ : this character is so simple, and so readily observed in
nearly all the species, that I am glad to employ it in fixing our
British plant as a Lomaria.