m
P O L I P O D I U M Filix-mas..,
' ■.il
.1 - à
f iil ■ ^
L in . Sp. ri. 1 55 1 . Ray Syn. 120. Flo. Scot. 671 .
Ger. Em. 1 1 30. Park. 1036.
Flo. Ang. 45-8~„
L A B . XXIV.
M A L E F E R N.
Th e root is large, long, firm, and woody, furrounded on the outfide
with thick brown fcales in an imbricated order, and furnifhed with
many long black tough fibres.
The firft leaves from one to four feet in length ; when young, the rib
is thickly covered with brown tough tranfparent fcales o f an oblique oval
lance-ihape ; the general figure of the leaf is lance-ihaped, broadeft in the
middle, and th.nce gradually decreafing to each extremity, and terminating
above in an acute point.
Second leaves from fifteen to forty pairs, remote on the lower part,,
growing gradually nearer upwards, and running together at the top.
Lobes from feven to fifteen pairs, the loweft pair largeft, decreafing upwards
till they run together and lofe themfelves in the point of the fecond
leaf,
7'ii
