C 1587 ]
J/Oj
CYATHEA fragilis.
Brittle Cup-fern.
CRYPTOGAMIA Filices.
Gen. Char. Fructifications scattered, roundish, growing
out of an hemispherical calyx, which bursts at the
top without a cover.
Spec. Char. Frond bipinnate : its leaflets pinnatifid,
sharply and deeply serrated. Fructifications a little
distant. Calyx torn. Common stalks winged.
S yn. Cyathea fragilis. Sm. FI. B rit. 1139. Sym. 194.
Roth. FI. Germ. v. 3. 94.
Polypodium fragile. Linn. Sp. PL 1553. Huds. 459.
W ith. 779. Hull. 240. Light/. 677. Dicks. D r.
PI. 15. B olt. F il. 50. t. 27, & 46.
Filix saxatilis, caule tenui fragili. Jlaii Syn. 125.
A b u n d a n t in the mountainous parts of Britain, growing
on moist shady rocks, or old buildings, to which it is a great
ornament in the summer months.
Root perennial, tufted, crowned with brown scales. Fronds
from 4 inches to a foot high, delicate and tender, each with a
smooth juicy brittle blackish stalk. The frond itself is lanceolate,
acute, smooth, bright green, doubly pinnate. Leaflets
alternate, cut, most frequently pinnatifid, sometimes obovate,
more generally lanceolate, sharply and deeply serrated, pointed,
their nerves more or less wavy. General and partial stalk
bordered with a narrow wing. Dots of fructification numerous,
alternate, round, brown or black, not confluent
except when old. Involucrum or calyx cup-shaped, embracing
the capsules underneath, bursting laterally, jagged,
at length reflexed and obliterated.
No fern varies more in the number, form and breadth of
its subdivisions. When large, most compound, and finely
cut, it is the Polypodium rheticum of British writers. When
smaller and less compound, it is, according to the Rev. H.
Davies, the P . ilvense of Ray’s Synopsis, 117.