i :
.i ;
North Wales. In the midland, and even southern counties of
England, it is met with, but not in abundance.
355S*>íl^;^v-
I t has numerous, strong, tough, and
penetrating roots, which spread in
every direction from a large, scaly,
and nearly spherical rhizoma, which
yearly increases in magnitude. In
favourable situations, this is capable
of sending forth thirty, forty, or even
fifty fronds, which spread with hut
little regularity round a common
centre. Immediately these begin to
^ S v 0 ^ unroll, they exhibit the pinnæ placed
at right angles with the rachis, as
represented in the vignette in the
next page, a character particularly
worthy of notice, because very unusual
amongst our ferns. The fronds, when
fully expanded, are very variable in
size, dependant in a great measure on
the age of the plant. An extraordinary
number of the seedlings of this plant
are occasionally to be met with. For
two or three years they bear little or no
fruit, hut after the third year fructification
appears in abundance, and from
that period all the fronds are fertile.
Ray thought the seedling of this plant
a distinct species, and Sir J. E. Smith
has recorded it as a variety.
In the figure of the frond there is
little or no variation ; it is elongate,
lance-shaped, regularly pinnate, acute
at the apex, and gradually diminished
from about two-thirds of its length to
the very base, the lower pinnæ being
so remarkably short, that this character
alone is sufficient to distinguish it from
, n22>22y>>’-v.«'vw_
all om- other ferns. There is but a very small portion of the
rachis hare, and this is covered with scales. The pinnæ are
linear, and acute at the apex, rather distant, deeply pinnatifid,
and attached to the rachis only by their stalk. The pinnulæ
are rounded, and slightly crenate. Over the whole of the under
surface are scattered small yellowish glandular globules, which
are adhesive to the touch, and emit a powerful, but not very
agreeable odour. I t is probably in consequence of this property
that this species has so frequently been mistaken for the Polypodium
fragrans of Linneus, a plant which I consider perfectly
distinct, and one which has not yet been discovered in any part
of the United Kingdom.
The veins in the pinnulæ of Oreopteris are a simple alternate
series : they cease just before reaching the margin, first hearing
a circular and nearly naked mass of thecæ ; sometimes, however,
the veins divide ju st before their extremity, and then each
branch usually hears a separate mass. The masses, varying on
each side from five to ten in number, form a regular and nearly
marginal series. In some instances, hut very rarely, a small torn
white indusium is to be seen near the centre of each mass of
thecæ (see the figure at page 47). This indusium is said to he
reniform—in other words, attached on one side, a character I have
never yet been able to detect. In general, the masses are
perfectly (naked, even before the frond has unrolled, and the plant
presents every appearance of being a true Polypodium.