A C R O S T I C H U M thelypteris.
Sp. P ! . 1528. Flo. Suecica. E d . 2. 928. Lobel. Icon. 814.. F ilix
(j-uerna repens. Park. 10 4 1 .
T A B . XLIII. XLir.
L A D I E S ’ A C R O S T I C H U M .
^T»HE root creeps horizontally under the furface o f the ground, is o f a
black colour and brittle fubftance, crooked, and about the thicknefs
o f a duck’ s q u ill; it emits many branches, the fize o f fmall packthread,
which are hung round with numerous, dark brown, capillary
fibres.
From the root, as it creeps along, the firft leaves rife at diftances, two
or three near together. The rib is from nine to fifteen inches high,
fmooth and naked, very flender, and o f a pale herby colour.
The fecond leaves from ten to fifteen pairs, oppofite, except one or
two of the loweft pairs ; lower pairs remote, growing gradually clofer
upwards, longeft about the middle pair, all o f them lance-ihaped, and
placed nearly at right angles with the rib of the firft leaf.
Lobes of the fecond leaves ten or twelve pairs, divided down to the
nerve ; they are broad, ihort, rounded off at the extremity, and quite
fmooth and entire on the edges ; their upper furface fmooth and plain,
not obvioufly marked with veins, as in the Polypodium thelypteris ; this
circumftance, together with its creeping root, and its being a much
fmaller