B L E C H N U M boreale,
No rth ern Blechnum.
CRYPT OG AM I A Filices.
Gen. Char. Frublif. in longitudinal continued lines,
near the rib. lnvolucrum fuperficial, continued,
opening towards the rib.
Spec. Char. Frond pinnated, fmooth; its lobes linear,
bluntifh, entire, fcarcely dilated at the bafe.
Syn. Blechnum boreale. Swartz. in Schrad. Journ.
ann. 1800, v. 2. 75.
B, Spicant, With. 7 65, Hull. 342. Sym. 193.
Relb. 4 0 7 .
Ofmunda borealis. Salijb. Prod. 4 0 2 .
O. Spicant. Linn. Sp. PI. 1522. Hudf. 450.
Abbot. 224. Bolt. Fil. 8. t. 6. Curt. Lond.
fafc. 1. t. 67.
Acroftichum Spicant. Sibth. 267,
Lonchitis afpera. Rail Syn. 118.
A NATIVE of moift Ihady places, as well as of open barren
and ftony heaths, where its feeds are perfefted in July and
Auguft,
Root perennial, black and fcaly. Fronds feveral, a foot
or more in height, ereft, ftraight, lanceolate, acute, fmooth,
of a deep green, formed of numerous parallel linear alternate
fegments, more or lefs clofely fet, entire, bluntilh with a minute
point, their bafe fcarcely at all dilated or auricled. The
fegments of the fertile fronds are much narrower and more
diftant than thofe of the barren ones. Innumerable capfules
form a brown line clofe to the rib of each lobe, covered when
young with an uninterrupted membrane, arifing from the fur-
face of the leaf, at fome djftance fiom its margin, and opening
at the fide next the rib, being forced back by the fwelling
capfules. Each capfule is bncompaffed with a ring.
That this fern is a real Blechnum there can be no doubt ;
and of the various difcordant fynonyms above enumerated we
truft it will be found, on referring to the foreign fpecibs^ that
we have chofen the moft expreffive,