I
i ■
Previously, however, to the description in the English Botany,
by Hooker, assigning to this fern the rank of a species, the same
^ ^ , author liad noticed it as a variety in his
f- i A V British Flora, 1st edition, p. 412, where it
A '-cri'
stands as Aspidium spinulosum, var.7. In the
Herbarium of the late Sir J. E. Smith, are
two fronds from Davall’s Herbarium, which
are thus labelled in Smith’s hand-writing,
“ As. rigidum. Willd. Sp. PI. Vol. v.
p. 265.” As I think it probable that, with
the view of testing my accuracy by the
weightier authority of Smith, these fronds
.of uiay hereafter he examined by those
triof' botanists who take an interest in establishing
the identity of species, it seems needful
to say that those fronds do not appear to
me identical with Willdenow’s description
or Schkuhr’s figure, and certainly not with
the British fern I am now describing. One
^ of the fronds in question is from Dauphiny,
the other from Switzerland, neither therein'
f fore having any claim to be ranked as
British. I conceive it my duty simply to
/ point out, without venturing to rectify, the
Arerror.
The roots are long, and the rhizoma
large and tufted. The rachis is unusually
thick at the base, and very thickly clothed
with chaffy scales, which are more or less
abundant throughout its entire length.
The naked part of the rachis is about one-
fom-th of its entire length. The frond is
nearly erect, and its habit is altogether
a good deal that of Lastræa Filix-mas : it is
lanceolate and pinnate; the pinnæ are
crowded, and often from twenty to thirty in
number on each side ; the lower ones are
wider at the base, shorter and more triangular
than those in the middle and upper
part of the frond ; they are all pinnate ; the pinnulæ are somewhat
stalked, and so deeply divided into lobes that they would
almost be called pinnatifid; the lobes are serrated, the teeth
being without spines. This character I consider of importance,
as removing all doubt as to this species ever sinking into a variety
of Lastræa dilatata.
The midvein of the pinnulæ is waved;
the lateral ones are alternate, and each is
forked almost immediately after leaving the
midvein : the posterior branch is again
divided, and ramifies into each serrature of
the lobe : the anterior branch bears a circular
mass of thecæ, and these masses, ten
or twelve in number, are closely packed,
becoming completely confluent; each of
the masses is covered by a reniform lead-
coloured indusium, which is attached to the
vein by a short stalk placed in the lateral
notch. The figure in the margin shows the ^
veins, and the points of the attachment of the thecæ ; in the
figure at page 55 I have shown the masses of thecæ and their
indusia in the natural situation.
The indusium of this fern is furnished with a fringe of
stalked glands, as represented at the top of the cut in the
preceding page.