"^*_ a/- THE C > ' ' THE BRITISH FERNS POPULARLY DESCRIBED, AND ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS OF EVERY SPECIES. FORMING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE FAMILY AS REGARDS THEIR CHARACTERISTICS, PECULIARITIES, NATURAL PLACES OF GROWTH, AND THE MOST SUCCESSFUL METHODS OF CULTIVATING THEM. BY GEORGE W. JOHNSON, ESQ., EDITOB OF " THE COTTAOE GARDENER," &C. THIRD EDITION. LONDON : COTTAGE GARDENER OFFICE, 20, PATERNOSTER ROW. TO BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. 1859. > WINCHESTER: PK1NTED BY HUGH BARCLAY, HIGH b T K E E T. INTRODUCTION. No Natural Order of plants attracts more attention than the Ferns, and that attention is attracted by their elegance, the freshness of their verdure, the peculiarity of their structure, and the ease with which most cf them are cul- tivated. To assist the searcher after, and the cultivator of these plants, and to afford him a guide as free as possible froir the jargon of botanical language, were the leading considerations in preparing these pages. The engravings, for the most part, will enable any one, without other assistance, to ascertain the name of any species he may possess, or, if he knows its name, the al- phabetical order of the work and the index will enable him to refer readily to full particulars concerning its history, description, and cultivation ; but some readers may wish for a guide to the systematic arrangement of the British Ferns, and for their use we offer the following information. The Ferns (Filices) are flowerless plants, with a root-stock spreading underground (rhizoma), from which arise, un- coiling usually in a spiral form (circinnate) the fronds or leafy stems ; the under surface of the fronds is traversed 2091075 iv INTRODUCTION. by veins, producing, in British Ferns, one-celled cases con- taining the seed (spores). Mr. Sowerby having objected to our use of the classifica- tion we adopted in the First Edition of this work, and also to some of the magnified portions of the parts of fructifica- tion, we have been led to a closer consideration of these subjects, and we rejoice in being able to say that the resrlt of such consideration is a greater amount of correctness. The improved classification is as follows: POLYPODIACE^:. Fructification placed on the back of the frond, naked, having neither the usual covering nor covered by the margin of the frond. Eing vertical. Vernation coiled. CETERACH. Masses of fructification oblong, or nearly linear, straight, covering not apparent; mid-veins parallel or oblique, vein-branches uniting at their points. POLYPODTOM:. Masses nearly circular, scattered in spots, without covering. Edge of frond not bent back. GYMNOGKAMMA. Capsules seated on the forked veins of the fronds; covering none ; seeds triangular. Fructification placed on the back of the frond, and either furnished with a cover or having the margin of the frond turned back over it. Eing vertical. Vernation coiled. WOODSIA. Masses nearly circular, scattered \n dots; receptacle membranaceous, flat, somewhat plate-shaped, fringed with incurved hairs. PoiYSTiOHUsf. Masses circular, covering circular, fixed INTRODUCTION. V to the frond by its centre on the upper branches of the side- veins. LASTBZA. Masses nearly circular on the back of the side-veins ; covering irregularly kidney-shaped, attached to the frond at the indentation in its kidney shape. CYSTOPTEBIS. Masses small, nearly circular, seated at the back of the main side-veins; covering hood-like, fixed by its broad base beneath the masses, which it covers when young, the margin where it opens fringed, finally turned back. ASPLENIUM. Masses in lines, placed on the lateral veins ; covering membranaceous, fiat, opening towards the mid- vein. ATHYBTUM. Masses nearly circular, scattered; covering solitary, circular, peltate, or kidney-shaped, attached to the frond by its centre or side, opening on the side next the mid-vein, and edge of opening fringed, the fringe turning back. SCOLOPENDBIOTI. Masses line-like, oblique, double, op- posite, parallel; covering membranaceous, opening in the middle over the masses in opposite pairs. PTERIS. Masses on the margin of the leaflet in an unin- terrupted line ; covering opening from the bent-in edge of the frond. ALLOSOBUS. Masses circular, placed on the transverse forked veins, finally covering the back of the contracted leant ; covering very narrowed, formed by the rolled-back edge of the leant ; seeds triangular. BLECHNUM. Masses in continuous line next each side of the mid-vein ; covering membranaceous, flat, opening next the mid- vein. I. Masses line-like, or partly round, on the VI INTRODUCTION. margin of the leant, inserted in the covering; covering, being a continuation of the leafit's outer skin, scale-like, opening on inner side. HYMENOPHYLLACE^:. Fructification placed on a receptacle at the margin of the frond at the end of a vein. Ring horizontal. Vernation coiled. THICHOMANES. Masses on the margin in a somewhat bell-shaped receptacle, with a central bristle-like column, to which the masses are attached. HYMENOPHYLLUM. Masses attached to a central, rather club- like column, in an erect two-valved receptacle. OSMTJNDACEJB. Fructification naked, arranged in a cluster on a stalk at the end of a frond. Vernation coiled. OSMIWDA. Masses in cases nearly globular, netted, stalked, opening lengthwise from their base as high as a transparent dorsal projection ; the cases borne in a cluster or panicle. OPHIOGLOSSACES:. Fructification naked, arranged in a cluster on a stalk attached to a frond. Vernation straight. OPHIOGLOSSUM. Masses in a jointed two-rowed spike, in cases joined at the base, one-celled, opening at the side. BOTRYCHIUM. Masses in compound one-sided spike, adnate; capsules globular, stalkless, leathery, half two- valved, opening rather on the side. THE BRITISH FERNS. FERNS have long been popular plants; nor is their popularity confined to one class of society, and for this reason, while all Ferns are beautiful, some of them are so cheap as to be within the purchasing power of all, and others are so scarce and costly as to be worthy companions of all that is rich and rare among the gems of the Stove and Conservatory. The popularity of Ferns, however, does not rest only upon their beauty and their price, for they have, as an additional cause for their ready access to the good graces of the cultivator, that there is scarcely any place in which Ferns of some genera refuse to grow. Most of them thrive best in the shade ; others prefer the brightest light; a third group will live only on dry walls and chalky rocks ; a fourth succeed nowhere, except in abundant moisture; a fifth revel in the freest air of the mountain top; and a sixth flourish verdantly for months, and even years, within the close confinement of a Wardian case. Thus all purses and all situations if B 2 BRITISH FERNS. neither the one nor the other are absolutely barren can command a supply of Ferns. Notwithstanding their accessibility, and notwith- standing their popularity, it is as extraordinary as true that no popular work upon even the Hardy Ferns, com- bining a description of each species and its culture, has yet been published. We have excellent scientific works upon the Ferns, and we have general directions for their cultivation, but nothing which an amateur can read with pleasure, or consult for specific directions. It is hoped that this volume will supply this deficiency; for our notes will not be a mass of dry technical terras, which only the palate of a mere botanical collector can relish, but will be a mingling of what we think will be interesting to all, whether derived from our own observa tions, or from the observations of others. Moreover, we shall endeavour to use terms which all can under- stand ; for our object, especially, is to benefit and gratify those who love plain truths in plain words. Ferns are flowerless plants with stems, yet in this country the leaves are far more strikingly developed than are the stems " In our Ferns," says Mr. Henfry, " the stem is indeed occasionally erect, rising a few inches from the ground, and expanding its wide leaves (or fronds, as they are usually called) in a circle; but in a greater number it creeps along beneath the ground, being, in fact, a rhizome similar in the nature of its growth to that of the Sedges, and other flowering plants. This rhizome bears small separate (adventitious) roots on the BRITISH FERN'S. 3 under side, while at intervals from the upper spring leaves, which, when young, are very pretty objects, being curled up in a kind of scroll, that gradually unrolls as they rise upward. The bodies which repre- sent the seeds here (called spores) are usually produced in formations growing upon the backs of the leaves, and it is principally upon the mode of arrangement of these formations (called sori) that the classification of Ferns is founded. " The common condition of the apparatus in which the spores are produced may be described as follows : On the backs of the leaves, round patches, or streaks, or lines running round the borders of the divisions, appear, which in a perfect state have a brown, powdery aspect. This appearance is concealed in many kinds, in the early stages, by a membranous cover enclosing the brown dust ; when the spores are more advanced, these coverings (called indusia) become either wholly or partly detached, and if examined with a magnifying glass, are found to have peculiar forms in different kinds of Ferns, and to be attached sometimes by little stalks, and sometimes hy their edges, if we place some of the brown dust-like substance under a microscope, we find it to consist of a number of little cases, which, when ripe, burst, and discharge the very minute spores which have been produced within them. The bursting of the cases results from the elasticity of a kind of thickened band (the annulus), which extends around the mem- branous case, or spore-fruit (tlieca). The spores are mostly so small as to be invisible singly to the naked 4 BRITISH FERNS. eye, and consist of single vesicles of various shapes, often beautifully ornamented with markings on the exterior. " Some Ferns bear their spore-fruits in a somewhat different way. In the Osmunda, or Koyal Fern, the division forming the end of the leaf consists of a spike covered with capsules (spore-fruits), which differ slightly from those above described. In the Adder's-tongue aud Moonwort, the spores are produced in fronds (called fertile fronds), which are quite changed in character for this purpose, and appear like spiked inflorescences. These three last kinds are sometimes wrongly called Flowering Ferns. " In germination, the spore, which is a mere vesicle and not a miniature plant, such as we find in a seed, grows and divides into a number of vesicles, which multiply and enlarge until they form a miuute green, leaf-like patch, and from the surface of this the first leaf arises, as it does from the plumule, or terminal bud of tho embryo in the flowering-plants." " The root of the tribe of Ferns," observes Mr. Keith, " assumes a great variety of different aspects in different species. In BotryoTiium Lunaria it is fibrous ; in Aspidium dilatatum it is tuberous; and in Polypodium vulgare it is creeping and covered with scales. In Pteris aquilina, or Common Brakes, it is sometimes described as being spindle-shaped : yet this is not strictly the fact. If a frond is taken and pulled up with the hand, the portion of it is indeed spindle-shaped; but the real root, or rather rhizoma, or root-stock, from which you have BRITISH FERNS. 5 thus detached the frond, remains still in the soil, elongating in a horizontal direction at the depth of from three to four inches, sometimes simple and some- times branched, but always furnished with lateral fibres. " The trunk of Ferns if trunk ' it can be called which trunk is none' is a stipe supporting the frond ; or rather the whole of the herbage is a frond, that is, an incorporation of stipe (or stem), leaf, and fructifica- tion. If the stipe of a Fern is cut open, it will be found to consist of a firm pulp, or pith, interspersed with bundles of longitudinal fibres of a dusty brown colour, assuming an arrangement proper to the species. On a transverse section of the stipe of Pteris aquilina (Common Brake), taken a little above the surface of the soil, the divided extremities of the bundles exhibit a slight resemblance to an oak-tree in full leaf. This has been noticed even by the peasantry of the country, among whom it is known by the name of ' King Charles's Oak.' But if the section is taken in a slanting direction, then the resemblance exhibited is that of the Eagle of the Koman standard; whence we have the specific name, aquilina. " It was for a long time believed that Ferns are destitute of seeds, and propagated nobody knows how. Yet no botanist of the present day doubts the reality of Fern-seed, or, at the least, of sporules from which new plants spring. Some have even fancied that they had detected the parts of the antecedent flower. But ad- mitting that such detection is impracticable, the botanist 6 BRITISH FERNS. can, at least, direct his attention to the mode of fructi- fication, and to the fruit produced. In Ferns, strictly so called, it is dorsal ; that is, scattered in clusters or patches on the back of the frond. These patches are generally accompanied with an integument called the Indusium, which, at the period of the maturity of the seed, bursts open, sometimes towards the nerves, and sometimes towards the margin; but in plants of a similar habit, uniformly in a similar manner. The merit of this discovery is due exclusively to Sir J. E. Smith, who found it to be a most decisive criterion for the determining of natural genera, and the only sure ground on which the botanist can rely. When this integument bursts, the fruit, now ripe, escapes, which is for the most part a capsule surrounded by an elastic and jointed ring opening transversely, and discharging the enclosed seed or sporule, which is a small and minute globule, discoverable only by the microscope, and capable of giving origin to a new plant. Ferna were raised from the sowing of their seeds in 1789, by Mr. J. Lindsay, of Jamaica, as also by Mr. J. Fox, of Norwich, about the same time." From that time Ferns began to obtain more notice from gardeners, and there is now no order of plants of which the propagation and culture are better understood. ADIA'NTUM CAPI'LLU.S VBNK'HIS. ADIANTUM. ADIANTUM CAPILLUS VENEEIS This most elegant Fern was not known by our early botanists to be native of this country. Gerarde says, " The right Maiden-hair groweth upon walls, in stoney, shadowy, and moist places near unto fountains, and where water dropeth. It is a stranger to England; notwithstanding I have heard it reported by some of good credit, that it groweth in divers places of the west country of England." Parkinson had heard it " re- ported that it is found in Gloucestershire." Ray, in 1686, says, "it rarely or never occurs in England;" nor was it known for certainty that it is a native of this country until found by Mr. Llhwyd (Lloyd) at Barry Island and Forth Kirig, in Glamorganshire, about the year 1700, and it was first announced in the third edition of Ray's Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britani- carvm (vol. i. 123), published in 1724. Boot black, scaly, and with wiry, fibrous rootlets. Fronds usually six inches high, but under favourable culture twice that height ; evergreen in sheltered situa- tions, but usually dying in winter and reappearing in May. Stipe, or stem, of the frond, slender, and dark purple, the lower half of its length without leaflets. The branches of the stem are very slender, and alter- nately on opposite sides of it, and the leaflets are similarly placed on the branches. Leaflets irregularly fan-shaped ; the fertile leaflets deeply cut on their edges, and the barren leaflets sharply-toothed. They are all of 10 ADIAXT UAI. a pale, semi-transparent, bright green colour, and having doubly-branched veins. The fructification forms a kind of margin to the lobes of the fertile leaflets, and when perfect, in July, becomes of a deep brown, as shown on the magnified leaflet in our drawing. This Fern is of rare occurrence in this country, being found chiefly in our mildest and moistest districts, Devon, Cornwall, South Wales, and Ireland. It has been found, however, on the Islands of Arran, and on the banks of the Carron, in Scotland. Much more abundantly does it occur in the warmer countries of Europe, Northern Africa, Asia, and North America. CULTURE. Although a native of Great Britain, yet it is only found here in moist, sheltered situations ; and, therefore, it is useless to attempt to grow it either upon ordinary rockwork or borders, in the open air. It requires to be cultivated under glass in a moist, moder- ately warm air. It is generally kept as a pot plant in the frame, greenhouse, or moist stove. In the latter it grows and flourishes marvellously. In its wild state, the little plant may be found growing from three to six inches in height, whilst in the moist, shady part of the stove it is to be seen varying from six to twelve inches, forming one of the most beautiful and interesting of evergreens all the year round. It is said, by Mr. Houlston and Mr. Moore, that in the warmer climate of the south of Europe, the Channel Islands, and Madeira, this Fern attains the height of eighteen inches, and is then called Adiantum Moritzi- anum; but our native plant, if cultivated in a moist ADIANTUM. 11 stove, with a high temperature, will produce fronds of magnitude equal to those from the south of Europe or Madeira, with which they are precisely identical. The best way to cultivate it is to keep it as a pot plant ; and the pots should be always placed in pans, and the pans should be nearly always supplied with water, whether in the stove, greenhouse, frame, or window. Whenever the pots or pans become foul, or the smell of stagnant water is perceptible, withhold the water for a day or two, and let the pots containing the plants be nicely washed, and the pans too. This should be attended to particularly at all times. Old, well- established plants, thus attended to, will stand and flourish in the same pots for many years undisturbed. Occasionally remove all decayed fronds from the plant. If one season is better than another, the month of April is the best time for potting or dividing this Fern, as it is readily increased by division. The best soil for it is lime-rubbish, sandy-peat, and pebbles, in equal proportions. The pots should be always thoroughly drained, using broken potsherds for this purpose, with a little moss over, to prevent the earth from getting in among the drainage. The little root fibres seem to delight in finding their way among the broken crocks. USES. In the days of the old herbalists the true Maiden-hair Fern was considered not only efficacious in many diseases, but especially potent in promoting length of tresses, and to this attributed power it owes its name, both among the Latins and the moderns. So succulent are the leaves, that under strong pressure 12 ADIANTUM. they yield about three-fourths of their weight of juice. This juice gave the name to a well-kuown syrup Capillaire. If this has any medicinal virtue it arises from the Orange-flower water forming one of its ingre- dients. To MAKE CAPILLAIRE. Maiden-hair leaves five ounces; Liquorice-root, peeled and sliced, two ounces; boiling water five pints. Let them remain for six hours ; strain, and then add thirteen pounds of the finest loaf sugar, and one pint of Orange-flower water. ALLOSO'l'.US CRI'SPUS. AJ,I,OSORUS. ALLOSO'RUS CRI'SPUS. This has various local names, such as Crisped 01 GurUd Fern, Parsley Fern, Stone Brakes, and Mountain Parsley. Names allusive to some one or other of its peculiarities. Crisped and Curled refer to the form of the leaflets; Parsley, to its resemblance to that plant; Stone, to its love of rocky or stony soil; and Mountain, to its frequenting Alpine localities. Its generic name is derived from the Greek allos, diverse, and soros, a heap, referring to the varying forms of the patches of its fructification, or sori. The specific name, crispus, or curled, is explained by what we have said already relative to one of its English names. A friend used to call this his " pet, pit, pot Fern," and of a truth, it is not only most beautiful of form, but of that diminutive size which seems so needful to entitle anything animate or inanimate to the worthiness for being petted. The main body of the root lies horizontally just be- neath the surface of the soil, producing many fibrous rootlets. The fronds arise in May, or early in June; their stalks are from two to six inches long, slender, smooth, waved, and pale green. The leafleted portion is of a further length of from one-and-a-half to three inches. There are two kinds of fronds, one kind being barren, and the other fertile. The leaflets of the barrert fronds are altogether alternate, by which we intend that 16 ALLOSORUS they are alternate on the branchlets, and the leafits and their lobes are also alternate. By " alternate " is meant, first on one side, and then one on the other side, each leaflet, leafit, and lobe, being opposite to the space between two leaflets, leafits, or lobes, on the contrary side. The leafits of the barren fronds are pale bright green, wedge - shaped, finely- toothed on the edges, and frequently crisped or curled. The fertile fronds are considerably taller than the barren fronds, and their leafits are spear-head-shaped, and smooth-edged. The fructification, or sori, are in lines along the under margin of the leafits, as represented in the magnified leafit of our engraving, but the margin is so rolled back as to conceal the sori, as on one side of the leafit in that engraving. After the spores or seeds have ripened and been discharged which in their native state occurs in September the sori so spread out, that they cover the whole of the back of the leafit, except its midrib. In our engraving, which is of the natural size, the fertile frond is in the centre Allosoms crispus is a 1'eru rather rare in this country, being confined to its northern parts and mountains. It affects rocks, heathy places, and old walls. It has been found in Rutlandshire ; at Tenterfell, near Kendal, in Westmoreland ; on Cader Idris, in Merionethshire ; and on Snowdon, in Carnarvonshire; at Borrowdale,.in Cumberland ; and in the Highlands of Scotland. It was unknown to old Gerarde and to bis editor Johnson ; nor do we find any mention of it as a native ALLOSORUS. 17 plant until 1696, when Ray, in the second edition of his Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum, de- scribes it as found in Westmoreland, and other places, by Mr. James Sutherland, the first curator of the Edin- burgh Botanical Garden. Ray calls it, as it was called by its first describer, Schwenkfeld, Adiantum album crispum alpinum (Cui'led Alpine White Maiden-hair). Linnaeus, who knew less about Ferns than about any other of the great divisions of the vegetable kingdom, named it at one time Osmunda, and at another time Pteris crispa, whilst some botanists have called it Cryptogramma, and others Phorolobus, but the best authorities now agree that J. J. Bernhardi, at the com menceinent of the present century, was correct when he separated it from all other Ferns, and named it Allosorus. USES. We have seen that Ray and other early herb- alists considered this Fern an Adiantum, or Maiden-hair. In those days plants were chiefly examined for their medicinal qualities, and all herbalists then agreed with our earliest writer on Plants, Dr. William Turner, that of the Adiantums, " the juyce stayeth the heare that falleth off, and if they be fallen off, it restoreth them agayne." But it is quite certain that his remedy is as defective as his spelling and grammar. Though deficient in medicinal qualities, this Fern, as we have already noted, is well worthy of culture for its elegance. CULTURE. When cultivated, it should be grown upon well-drained rockwork, moderately shaded, kept moist, c 18 ALLOSOIIUS. and planted in a mixture of loam and peat, and all the better if a portion of bricks, broken up into small pieces, be mixed with it. But with all the care bestowed upon such plants, they will disappear at times, there- fore, the cultivators of such heautiful and interesting plants should always keep duplicates in well-drained pots, and the pot-kept plants should always have winter protection, but during the summer months such pots can always be placed out-of-doors in some suitable place. The plants should always be well-established in pots before being turned out in the border or rockery. This Fern is readily increased by division in the spring months. It grows luxuriantly in the green- house or vinery, under the shade of the Vines. A little protection can be given to any of these choice little Ferns, even when they are planted out upon the rockery, or in the border, by placing a hand-glass over them. ASPI.E'KIUM ADIA-'NTUM-NI'GHUM. ASPLENIUM. 21 XASPLE'NIUM ADIA'NTUM-NI'GRUM. THIS, the Black Maiden-liair-like Spleenwort, is popu- larly known as the Black Maiden-hair, and Oak Fern. Its main root is black, scaly, and furnished with many wiry, dark-coloured rootlets. The fronds rise from the crown of the root, and vary in height from three inches to nearly two feet. The specimen fronds from which our drawiug was taken, and which is about one-third the natural size, were about fifteen inches high. These greater heights are attained by the Fern when growing in a shady situation and rich soil, as was our specimen at Sherfield, in Hampshire. The stem of the frond is dark chesnut-coloured, and glossy; the part joining the root scaly; about half of its length bare, and the other half leafy. The leafy portion has a lengthened - tri- angular form, the lower pair of the leaflets being longest, each pair above them being gradually shorter and shorter, until they pass insensibly into the single terminating leaflet. The leaflets are also lengthened, triangular in form, and are more or less alternate, and so are the leafits composing each leaflet. The leafits are spear- head-shaped, and so finely toothed at their edge as almost to appear fringed. The pair of leafits nearest the main stalk of the frond are so deeply cut as to be divided into still smaller, or sub-leafits. They all are bright light green on the upper surface, but the under surface is much paler. The fructification (sori) appears at first in oblique -'U ASPLENIUM. whitish lines, varying in number from three to seven, on the under surface of the leafits. The whiteness arises from a thin covering (called the indusium), which bursts with a smooth edge on the side next the mid-vein of the leant. The covering finally peels off, and then the sori, which are brown, spread until they cover the entire back of the leafit, all but the edge. This spread- ing, or running together, of the fructification is called confluent by botanists. The seed, or spores, are in various states of growth from April to October. There are two varieties, acutum (very pointed), and obtusum (blunt). The only differences between these and the species we have described are that the fronds, the leaflets, and leafits of acutum extend to a longer and sharper point, whilst those of obtusum are more rounded. The intermediate forms are so various, that we really consider the above not entitled even to the subordinate distinction of a variety. Variegatum is a more certain variation, for it is very distinctly variegated with cream-colour. It was found on the church of Shottisbrook, in Berkshire, during 1847, by Mr. Silver. The generic name, Asplenium, is derived from a, not, and splen, the spleen, alluding to the supposed medicinal power of some of the species to lower the activity of the spleen. The specific name, Adiantum iiigrum, is literally translated in the popular title, Black Maiden-hair. This is one of the common Ferns of the British Islands, being found very generally on old walls and ASPLENIUM. 23 among stones in shady places. It is spread over all Europe, and was known as a native plant to our earliest herbalists. Gerarde says it grows " upon trees in shadowie woods, and now and then in sbadowie banks, and under hedges." We never found it upon trees, nor have we spoken of it to any one who has. Ray is more correct in stating that it is found " in shadowy places at the roots of trees and shrubs ; in shaded fields, and on old walls generally." The same author is the first of our native botanists who gave an accurate description of this Fern ; a description which he pub- lished in the first volume of his " Historia Plantarum." This Fern is one of the best among our native Ferns to examine as an illustration of the peculiar packing, or rolling up of the fronds previously to their expansion to the light and air. The point of the frond is turned inwards, so that as the frond unrolls the upper surface is always outwards, and the lower, or seed-bearing surface is always within and protected In Bay's time, the latter half of the 17th century, this Fern was believed to be a beneficial medicine in coughs, asthma, and some other diseases, and even Hoffmann recommended its use as an anti-scorbutic, but it is no longer employed even by herbalists. It is a Fern very useful to the cultivator of this Natural Order of plants, for it is evergreen, and will thrive in pots under glass even better than upon rock- work in the open air. Hence it is a good tenant for a Wardian case. It will endure continued exposure to bright sunshine, and is then of a dwarf stature, but 24 ASPLENIUM. under shade, and in a favourable soil, it attains a medium size. The soil best suited to it is a mixture, in equal parts, of sandy loam, leaf-mould, limy rubbish, and pebbles. It is easily propagated by dividing the crowns" in early sprint. April is as good a month as any for this purpose. ASPLE'NIUM FONTA'NUM. ASPLENIUM FONTANUM. 27 ASPLE'NIUM FONTA'NUM. THIS bears the English names of the Rock Polypody, Slender-stemmed Polypody, and Smooth Rock Spleenwort. Why the specific name fontanum was ever applied to it we cannot discover, and such specific name is sin- gularly inappropriate, since so far from delighting in fountains, it is found only on dry rocks and old walls. The root is dark-coloured, short, and thick, furnished with many rootlets, and terminating in a scaly tuft, from among which arise the fronds. These fronds vary in height from three to eight inches, but rarely exceed four inches. They grow in an erect tuft, as represented jn our drawing. A very small portion of the stem, or stipe, is without leaflets, and the scales of the root are continued up a part of that unleafleted portion. All the leafleted part of the stem has a narrow wing of a leafy texture running up opposite sides, between the stalks of the leaflets. The leaflets are pale green, alternate, and lengthened egg-shaped, some being divided into leafits similarly shaped, but others near the top of the stem are only deeply notched. The fructification, or sori, is very accurately described by Mr. Moore as being produced two or three (sometimes five, as in our magnified specimen) on a leaflet, on the side veins, and near where they join the mid-vein. The sori, he adds, are short, oblong, sometimes distinct, but often running together (confluent), and, occasionally, occupying nearly the whole under surface of every leaflet. " They are 28 ASPLENIUM PONTANUM. covered by an opaque, white, oblong skin (indusium), more rounded on the loose edge, which is turned towards the mid-vein, than on that edge by which it is attached to the leaflet; the loose edge being, also, waved and rather toothed." (Moore's Handbook of British Ferns. 150.) Many botanists have doubted the claim of this Fern to be considered a British species, but we think its claim as fully established. That it has been found but seldom, and in few places, is no counter-evidence. It is often passed by, probably, without examination, being mistaken for Asplenium trichomanes, and other common species. The first to announce this as a British Fern was Mr. Hudson, in the first edition of his Flora Anglica, pub- lished during the year 1762. He states that it grew upon " rocky places near Wybourn, in Westmoreland." Mr. Bolton, in his Filices Britannic, or History of British Proper Ferns, published in 1786, states that this Fern was found on the walls of Agmondesham (Amersham) Church, in Buckinghamshire. In 1838, Mr. Readhead found it on rocks in Wharncliffe Woods, Yorkshire. Mr. Charles Johnson discovered it, in 1845, on an old wall on Tooting Common, Surrey. More recently it has been found by the Eev. W. Hawker, on a wall at Ashford, near Petersfield, in Hampshire. Mr. Shepherd, of Liverpool, sent specimens to Mr. Moore, which bad been collected at Matlock, in Derbyshire. Mr. Hutcheson, formerly gardener at Boxley Abbey, Kent, and a Fern cultivator, gathered it in 1842, on ASPLENIUM FONTANUM. 29 rocks near Stonehaven, in Kincardineshire. Thus, it has been found by competent judges in various parts of England, in Ireland, and in Scotland, and it would be worse than irrational to maintain that in all these places it had been accidentally introduced by spores brought from continental Europe. The rarity of this Fern is in a considerable degree accounted for by the fact of its being unable to sustain our climate, except in sheltered, and thoroughly suitable situations. To grow it in perfection, and to preserve it ever- green, it must be cultivated as a pot plant, and have glass protection the whole year, with shading from the scorching sun's rays during the summer months. It may stand in a pan to receive water, when required, but, in general, it should be sparingly watered, compared with the generality of Ferns, and yet never allowed to go dry. Like most of the family, it is readily increased by careful division of large or old plants, in open weather during the spring months, and being planted in a mixture of sandy peat and broken bricks, or old mortar, or both. A little of this mixed with the soil is found beneficial to the plants, and particular attention is re- required to have good drainage. This drainage is best formed of fresh broken bricks. The roots of all Ferns seem to delight in finding their roots among this ma- terial. The pots should, in all cases, for this particular kind, be better than one-third filled with drainage, then a little moss over the drainage to prevent the earth 30 ASPLENIUM FONTANUM. going down among the broken bricks. When the drainage is thus all right, the plants may be watered more freely and safely. When shifting these plants into larger pots the drainage should be as before directed, and the crowns of the plants should be kept consider- ably higher than the rim of the pots. This is an essential. One of the greatest points in the culture and keeping these scarce and choice Ferns, is carefully to give them water, and to shade them when needed, and not to disturb them so long as they are doing well. The out- side of the pots the specimens stand in should be washed occasionally, as well as the pans which the pots stand in. Ferns, like other plants, sometimes become infested with Aphides, to destroy which they should be fumigated with tobacco-smoke. When specimens are seeming to tire of their soil, or are become too large, then is the best time for division, or to make a number of plants out of one scarce one, for not till then would we divide a fine specimen of a Fern. ASPLE'NIUJI G ASPLENIUM GERMANICUM. 33 ASPLE'NIUM GERMA'NICUM. THIS, among many other names, has also been called Asplenium alternifolium, because the leaflets are more distinctly alternate than in most other Ferns, but a? all the species are, for the most part, alternate-leaved, this is an objectionable name ; and so, indeed, is germanicum, for this species is native of other countries besides Germany. However, it is better to put up with an in- appropriate name, rather than to encumber the student with synonymes. Our drawing is of the life-size ; for this Fern varies but little in height between three and five inches. Its main root is black, furnished with many rootlets of the same colour, and crowned with a tuft from amid which arise the fronds. The stem of these is so deep a purple at the bottom as to appear black ; the lower half is unleafleted, and the upper half is green, and furnished with but a few widely separated leaflets, very distinctly alternating. The leaflets are pale green, narrow-wedge-shaped, tapering into slender stalks, and the top of each leaflet is deeply notched, and one notch in the lower leaflets is so deep as to form a lobe. There is no mid or main vein to the leaflets, but small parallel veins, some of which have the fructification along their inner edge. The fructification (sori) are covered by a narrow membrane, the opening edge of which is whole, or at most indented, but never jagged. The spores, or seed, are ripe in August, at which time the fructifica- B 34 ASPLENIUM GEBMANICUM. tion on each leaflet has united together, or become confluent. Linnaeus considered this a mere variety of the Asplenium ruta-muraria, or Wall Hue ; and it is decidedly much resembling that, as it does also Asplenium septen- trionale, or Forked Spleenwort, yet it is very distinct from each. It is found, but not abundantly, in Germany, Switzer- land, Italy, France, Hungary, and Sweden ; but was not known to be a native of Great Britain until dis- covered at the close of the last century, somewhere about 1792, by Mr. Dickson. He found it on some rocks in the south of Scotland, and published his discovery in the second volume of the Linnajan Society's Transactions. In that country it has been found on rocks in the Tweed, near Kelso, in Roxburghshire ; on the Stenton Rocks, near Dunkeld, in Perthshire; and near Dunfermline, iu Fifeshire. In England it has been found at Borrow- dale and Scaw-fell, in Cumberland; on Hyloe Crags, in Northumberland; and in Wales near Llanrwst, and in the pass of Llanberis. These are the only localities at present known as its dwellings, and even there it is not abundant, so that it is one of the rarest of our Ferns. It seems entirely to have been passed unnoticed by Gerarde and others of our earliest botanists. In its wild state its fronds die during the winter ; but cultivated in a cold greenhouse, from which frost is ex- cluded, it remains evergreen. It requires a very light, poor soil, and we have found it thrive most and permanently in a mixture of equal ASPLEN'IUM GERMAMCUM. 35 proportions of sharp river sand, sandy peat, and limy rubbish. One-third of the pot in which it is planted should be filled with drainage of broken potsherds Nothing destroys this Fern so soon ns an excess o' water either about its roots or its foliage. The soil in the pot should rise to a conical point, ana in that point the Fern should be planted with the tufted head of its root well above the surface, so that watei cannot settle in it. If grown under a bell-glass, this should be taken off daily, and be raised at the sides almost continually to avoid a close, damp atmosphere, for such an atmosphere is injurious and even fatal tc the plant if long continued. We prefer growing it in a greenhouse where a bell-glass is not needed. It must be shaded from the sun; and in watering, no watej must be poured over the crown of the root. Unless all these precautions are taken this Fern wi! not live under cultivation. Its dislike of a close at mosphere precludes it from the Wardian case, for which its diminutive size renders it peculiarly suitable S3 ASPLENIUM LANCEOLATUM. ASPLE'NIUM LANCEOLA'TUM. IN English this has been called Spear-shaped Spleen- wort, Lanceolate Spleemvort, and White Oak Fern. The main body of the root is black, tufted, and covered with bistle-like scales; the rootlets are also black and numerous. The stem, or stipe, of each frond, up to where the leaflets commence, is purplish- black, and throughout its entire length is more or less sprinkled with fine, bristly scales. The length of the fronds varies as much as from three to fifteen inches. Mr. Moore says they are sometimes eighteen inches. They attain the greatest height when favourably cul- tivated under shade in a warm greenhouse. The speci- men from which our drawing was taken is six inches high. The outline of the entire leafy portion of each frond is spear-head shaped, or lanceolate, to which the specific name alludes. The upper half of each stem and the leaflets are very bright, pale green. The spear- head shape of the frond is caused by the lowest leaflets being shorter than those immediately above them, and then the upper leaflets again gradually diminish in size. The leaflets have a triangular, or arrow - head outline, and though sometimes in opposite pairs, yet they are generally alternate ; they for the mobt part stand at a right angle with the stalk, but sometimes droop slightly. The leafits are reversed - egg - shaped, Olunt at the upper end, but deeply, and sharply-toothed, the teeth being as fine as bristles ; the leafits at their ASPLE'KIUM LANCEOIA'TUM. ASPLEXIUM LANCEOLATUM. 39 lower end taper off gradually into a fine foot-stalk ; they have a slightly twisted mid-vein, from which proceed forked side-veins, one to each division between the teeth. The fructification, or son, is in irregular- placed masses, several on each leafit, at first longish oval in form, but gradually running together, and spreading over nearly the whole leafit, and becoming of a rusty brown ; the cover or membrane (indusium) is oblong, whitish, with a jagged margin, always sepa- rating at the side towards the mid-vein. The spores, or seeds, are ripe in August and early in September. This species is found in the crevices of rocks and on old walls in the south of England. Upon rocks on the north side of the Isle of Jersey, and other parts of the Channel Islands ; about St. Ives and other places in Cornwall ; at Tonbridge Wells and its vicinity ; and in a few places in Oxfordshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Sussex, Somerset, Carnarvonshire, Denbighshire, Gla- morganshire, Merionethshire, and Pembrokeshire. Mr. Bolton states that he found it on a wall in a village near the river Wharf in Yorkshire, and Link says it occurs near Gilphead, in west Scotland, and in Ireland, but these localities require confirmation. Mr. Sweet, ia his " Bristol Flora," says it occurs there in " Old bury Court Woods, and in lanes about Stapleton. The area of this plant is not more than half-a-mile, occurring on the Old Red-Sandstone." Sometimes the outline of the frond becomes almost triangular, the lowest leaflets being the longest, and it is then very much resembling Asplenium adiantum- 40 ASPLENIUM LANCEOLATUM. nigrum, so much so, that Mr. Bolton thought it only a variety, but from this species it is always to be distin- guished by the form aud position of the fructification. The first author we find mentioning the Asplenium lanceolatum, is Lyte, in his translation of Dodoen's Herbal, published in 1578, if it is what he there calls Dryopteris Candida, or White Oak Fern ; and if so, Lyte adds " Mathiolus and Ruellius, both men of great knowledge, do call it in Latin, Osmunda. Where- . fore we, considering the property of this herb in tak- ing away hair, do think good to name this herb in our language, Osmund Baldpate, or Pilled Osmund" to pill being an old word for to rob. We are not certain that either Lyte, or Johnson (the editor of Gerarde), or Parkinson, really alluded to this species of Asplenium under the title of Dryopteris Candida, but we bow to the judgment of the late Sir J. E. Smith, who so states in his "English Flora," iv. 298. It was not until the second edition of Ray's " Syn x>sis Stirpium Britannicarum " appeared, in 1696, that U is Fern was announced as a native of the British do- minions, for it is there stated that Dr. Sherard had found it " on the rocks on the north side of the Isle of Jersey." In 1724, in the third edition of the same work, its discovery in England was first noticed. " Mr. Bobart having found it in the north porch of the church at Adderbury, in Oxfordshire. Dr. Woodward found it also in England." Although an English Fern, it is of a delicate habit, and only grows wild in peculiarly - sheltered, well- ASPLENIUM LAXCEOLATUM. 41 drained, yet moist situations. It grows well in a warm greenhouse, shaded from the sun, and kept moderately moist. Its stature is then much increased, and the brightness of its evergreen verdure is intense. The test soil for it is a mixture of peat, limy rubbish, bricks broken as small as filberts, and leaf-mould, in equal proportions; the pot it grows in being filled one-fourth with broken crocks for drainage. It may be propagated by division in April, but every piece separated must have a crown. It will not bear the close, damp air of a Wardian case. 42 ASPLEKIUM MARIXUM. ASPLE'NIUM MAEI'NUM. IN English this is known now as the Sea Spleenwort, Sea Maidenhair, and Dwarf Sea Fern, but Gerarde, and others of our early herbalists, called it the Female Dwarf Stone Fern. Its main root is black, scaly, and tufted, furnished with many intricately interwoven rootlets. From the tuft arise the fronds, which vary in height from three to nine inches. About one-third of the lower part of each stalk is naked, and brownish-purple, crooked at the bottom, and from where the leaflets commence, up to the summit of the stalk, there is a narrow, thick wing, or border, on each side, joining the base of the leaflets to each other. The leaflets are dark green above, but paler underneath, leathery, more or less alternate, very short-stalked, very irregular in form, but where most regular somewhat of an egg-shape, and almost always less than an inch in length, and mostly about half that length ; often lobed on the upper edge at the broadest end, and the margin more or less toothed or cut throughout. They are nearly all of equal length, so that the outline of the frond is strap-like but pointed. T'le mid-vein of each leaflet is prominent, and the side-veins are variously forked. Attaehed to the upper edge of these side veias is the fructification, which, following their direction, slants sideways but upwards. The fructification is on almost every side vein, and spreads, but is never conflueut, nor even crowded. The ASPI.C'MCM MABI'SUM. ASPLENIUM MARINUM. 45 membrane, or cover of the fructification is uninter- rupted, even, of a pale brown, and opens towards the mid-rib of each leaflet. The surface of each capsule of the fructification is curiously netted, and of a chesnut- colour. This has been known as one of our native Ferns aa long since as the time of Gerarde, 1597; at least so we conclude, from his saying that it " groweth under shadowy rocks, and craggy mountains in most places." This, however, is giving it too wide a range, and his editor, Johnson, in 1633, confines himself to saying, " It grows in the chinks of the rocks by the sea-side in Cornwall." Ray found it " on the rocks about Prest- holm Island, near Beaumaris, and at Llandwyn, in the Isle of Anglesea ; about the Castle of Hastings, in Sussex, and elsewhere on the rocks of the southern coast." It has also been found on Marsden Bocks, Durham; Isle of Man; Black Rocks on the Cheshire side of the Mersey; near the Dingle, Liverpool; Hulme Stone Quarry, near Warrington ; west coast of Cornwall ; Ormeshead, near Bangor ; Nigg, in Ross-shire ; near Port Patrick, Wigtonshire; Moray; Isle of Staffa ; Fifeshire, Aberdeenshire, and Berwickshire. In Ireland it has been found on the Sutton side of Houth Moun tain, Underwood Killiney Hill, and other places near Derrinane, in Kerry; and frequently on the western, and southern coasts. It has been gathered on the rocks under the Powder House, Shirehampton, near Bristol, where the water is brackish, but Mr. Swete observes that " this can hardly be considered a natural station 46 ASPLENIUM MARINUM. of this Fern, it' being seldom found higher up the Bristol Channel than Clevedon." Ray, who, like many clergymen of his time, combined the study of Medicine with that of Divinity, is rather strong in the narration of the medicinal qualities of this Fern. He says " It is given in obstructions of the viscera, but especially of the spleen. Its gurnmy extract applied outwardly to burns has afforded relief when all other applications have failed." (Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum. 119.) We know of no one who has succeeded in cultivating this Fern in the open air. Its roots cling so firmly to the sides of the chinks of the rocks where it grows naturally, that they are scarcely capable of being separated from the rocks undestroyed, and seemingly afford a warning that the soil and situation they prefer must be sedulously provided for them. It should be planted in a well-drained pot, in a mixture of equal parts sand, small fragments of brick, and peat, and kept in the most shady part of a greenhouse, where the temperature never fulls below 35. The water employed should have half- an-ounce of common salt dissolved in a gallon ; and this Fern should not be watered over the leaves, though it delights in a moist atmosphere, and, therefore, flourishes under a glass shade. When grown " in a hothouse it will attain a large size, and when the air is kept moist, does not require a glass. In such circumstances, I have seen the fronds eighteen or twenty inches long ; certainly it ASPLEXIUM MARIKUM. 47 luxuriates in warmth."* (Sowerby's* Ferns, by Mr. Charles Johnson.) Two sligbt varieties of this Fern have been noticed. One has the leaflets much narrower, and more pointed, so as to have a spear-head form, and has been named Asp^nium marinum var. acutum. The other variety was mistaken by Mr. Hudson for the Adiantum tra- peziforme, of Linnaeus, and was called by him Asple- nium trapeziforme, but it is only A. marinum with leaflets more deeply toothed and jagged, than ordinary. It was sent from Scotland by Dr. Alston to Mr. P. Collinson, and was subsequently found in that country in coves of the sea-shore near Wemys, by Mr. Lightfoot. * An evidence of its liking warmth is afforded by its being found a native not only of the south of France and Spain, and in northern Africa, the Canaries, and Madeira, but in no other part of Europe. 48 ASPLENIUM KUTA-MURARIA. ASPLE'NIUM EU'TA-MUEA'KIA. THIS is called ruta-muraria, or Watt Rue, because its young leaves somewhat resemble those of the common Rue, and because, when away from its native mountains it is rarely found growing anywhere but in the mortar on old walls. It is also called White Maidenhair, be- cause its full-grown leaves slightly resemble those of the true Maidenhair Fern, and because they have upon their surface a mealy, or glaucous secretion. It is sometimes called the Rue - leaved Spleenwort, White Spleenwort, and Tentwort. The main, cone-shaped tap root is dark brown, scaly, furnished with black wiry rootlets, and tufted. From the tuft arise the fronds, which vary in height from one to four inches. Our cut represents them in both their dwarf and more luxuriant growth. They are most dwarf when growing upon walls, and tallest when found upon the mountains. Leafstalk green, except quite at its base, and there it is dark brown. About one-half of the stalk naked, and the other half clothed with leafits mostly in threes, and two threes together, the middle branch only being alternately leafleted, and that not always. The leafits are stout, deep green, wedge-shaped, or partly rhomboid, stalked, spreading horizontally, or slightly drooping, their end blunt, or rounded, and deeply, irregularly notched. The barren leafits are broader and shorter than those which are fruitful. All have equal-sized veins spreading in a fan RU'TA-MDRA.'BIA. A8PLENIUM RUTA-MURARIA. 51 form, and extending to the notches or teeth. The fruc- tification is in lines on the inner side of the veins, and when ripe is dark brown, but at first covered with a white membrane (indusium), which is soon lost as the fructification spreads, runs together, and finally covers the whole underside of the leafit. The indusium bursts with a jagged edge on the inside; but, as Mr. Charles Johnson observes, this is of small importance in specific distinction unless far more decided than in this instance. This Fern sends up its new fronds in May and June, and they retain their verdure all the winter. The fruc- tification is ripe in August. It is found in moist, shady clefts of limestone rocks and in the crevices of old walls, abundantly in the midland and southern counties, but more rarely in those of the north and east of England. It is a native, also, of most parts of Europe, and from New York to Carolina, in America. It was known to our earliest herbalists as a native of this country. Thus, Gerarde says, " Stone Rue groweth upon old walls near unto waters, wells, and fountains. I found it upon the wall of Dartford Church, in Kent, hard by the river side, where the people ride through ; and also upon the walls of the churchyard of Sitting- bourne, in the same county, in the middle of the town, hard by a great lake of water ; and also upon the church walls of Rayleigh, in Essex; and in divers other places." Matthiolus was the first to call it Ruta muraria, or rather Ruta muralit, and Gerarde names it after him, " Wall Rue, or Rue Maiden-hair," as well as Stone Rue 52 ASPLENIUM BUTA-MURARIA. < Jtliers, says Gerarde, call it " Salvia vita (Preserver of Life), but wherefore I know not, neither themselves, if they were living." The best mode of raising this Fern, if desired for cultivation, is to collect the spores, or seeds, when ripe in August, and to sow them in a mixture of limey rubbish and leaf-mould, in a pot under a bell-glass, until the seedlings appear. Keeping it moist, and in a shaded part of the greenhouse. The glass must be removed when the seedlings are up. If attempted to be transplanted from a wall, it can very rarely be done successfully, unless the two bricks between which it is growing can be previously removed, so that the roots may be but slightly injured. The best time for thus moving it is just when it begins to grow in April. Plant it in a soil composed of three parts of rubbly limey-rubbish, one part sand, and one part leaf-mould. The pot must be well-drained, be kept constantly slightly moist, and in the shade. It requires a free ex. posure to air, which is the cause of its languishing under a Wardian Case. It is not improbable that the way in which the cone like main-root of this Fern tents or probes between the rocks or bricks where it grows, may have given rise to its old name of Tent-wort, which in that case is synony- mous with Probe-wort. Shakspere makes use of this now almost obsolete word in more than one passage. Thus, when Hamlet proposes to have " something like the murder of his father" performed before the king, he says : " I'll observe his looks I'll tent him to the quick ' \\ ASPLE'NIUM SEPTE-'NTBIONA'LE. ASPLENIUM SEPTENTRIONALE. 55 ASPLE'NIUM SEPTE'NTRIONA'LE. THIS is known to English herbalists by the name of the Forked Spleenwort, a name given to it on account of the form of its fronds. Its specific name, Septentrionale, alludes to its frequenting the northern districts of Great Britain. Its root is woody, branched, tufted, and furnished with a mass of crooked, fibrous rootlets. From the tufts arise very numerous fronds, forming dense patches. They vary in height from two to four inches. The stalk, which is naked for about half its length, is wiry, and dark green, except at the base, where it is dark purple. The upper part spreads into one, two, or three forked leaflets, which are narrow, strap-shaped, upright, smooth, and in colour a dull dark green. Each section of the fork has one or more teeth, and the sections are alternate. The upper surface of each leaflet is furrowed, but beneath, at first, they are covered with long white membranes (indusium), originating from the inner edge of the veins, and meeting over the middle. There is no mid-vein, but the veins arise from the base of the leaflet, and run parallel, and divide into as many branches as there are teeth at the end of each section of the leaflet. The fructification is dark brown, and as it increases in size, and runs together, it gradually throws off the mem- brane, and curiously twists the leaflet. The spores are ripe in August. It can scarcely be called a rare Fern, for although it 3 ASPLENIUM SEPTENTRIONALE. has been found only in the extreme northern and western districts of England, partially in Scotland, and not at all in Ireland, yet wherever it does occur, there it is pretty abundant. It occurs in clefts of rocks, on mountains, and on old walls, and has been found at Craig Dhu, and Carnedd Llewelyn, and Snowdon, in Wales; on Ingleborough, in Yorkshire ; at Patterdale and Keswick, and above Am- bleside, in Westmoreland ; on rocks in Edinburgh Park; on Stenton Rock, near Dunkeld ; and on rocks on the southern side of Blackford Hill, near Edinburgh. It is not uncommon throughout Europe, but is espe- cially frequent in Germany and Switzerland. Gerarde is the earliest of our botanists who notices this Fern, and he mistook it for a Moss, calling it "Muscut corniculatus, Horned or Kuagged Moss." The drawing he published of it, however, shews that it is the same as our Forked Spleenwort. Parkinson recognises it as a Fern, and describes it as the Naked Stone Fern (Fdix saxatilis Tragi). Ray writes of it under the same Latin name, but also calls it Horned or Forked Maidenhair. It may be cultivated as we have directed for the Asplenium ruta-muraria ; but Mr. Charles Johnson is quite right in stating that "it is less adapted for expo- sure in the open Fernery, at least in the eastern parts of England, the evergreen fronds being liable to suffer from frost, and especially during the dry, piercing winds of Spring. It will, however, live and flourish when planted in a sheltered cavity better than under confine- ment If potted, a cold, close frame, where it may be ASPLENIUM SEPTENTRTOJTALE. 57 kept with Asplenium marinum, A. fontanum, and such others, sheltered alike from the sun and cold, will answer for its culture better than the greenhouse, bearing in mind that the absence of all superfluous moisture must be strictly secured, and that the fronds of larger Ferns must not be allowed to spread over it." The tufted crown of the root should be raised well above the surface of the soil, which soil may be the same as for A. ruta-muraria. 58 ASPLEMTJM TRICHOMANES. , ASPLE'NIUM TRICHO'MANES. THIS is the Common Maidenhair Spleenwort, Common Wall Spleenwort, English Maidenhair, and English Slack Maidenhair of our native herbalists. The main body of the root is short, thick, dark pur- plish-chesnut, tufted, and furnished with many wiry rootlets of the same colour. From the tuft of the root arise many evergreen fronds, usually erect, but often spreading. They vary in length from two to twelve inches, and are simply a stalk clothed from the very bottom to the top with leafits. The stalk is smooth, very stiff, purplish-brown, and channelled in front. The leafits are very dark green, numerous, nearly stalk less, more or less alternate, about a quarter-of-an-inch long, gradually diminishing in size towards the top and bottom of the frond, oval but blunt at the upper end, and partially and irregularly scolloped at the upper edge. Fructification in six or eight masses, oblong, parallel to each other, but attached to the lateral veins passing obliquely from the mid-vein. The lateral veins divide into two, and sometimes three branches ; the upper branch bearing the fructification. The membrane, or indusium, which covers the fructification, is whitish, and it separates with a wavy edge from the oblique vein to which it was attached, and then exposes the capsules of sori, which are dark buff, or brown, and soon run together, or, as it i technically termed, become confluent. TRICHO'MANES. ASPLBNIUM TRICHOMANES. 61 There are three varied forms of this Ferri. One, called incisum (cut), has the edges of each leafit deeply and irregularly cut, so as to resemble the leaf of some of the Cratseguses. Another form has the leafits so crowded together, that they overlap each other like the tiles of a house-roof ; and in the third form, sometimes called monstrosum (deformed), the end of the frond is branched, or forked. This last variety was found by Mr. D. Dick, at St. Mary's Isle, Kircudbright, and by Mr. J. R. Kinahan, at Quin Abbey, Clare This Fern is found in all parts of the British Islands, on the shady sides of rocks, old walls, and hedge-banks. In the situation last named it attains the greatest height. It is not confined, however, to our country, nor even to Europe, for it is found in various parts of Asia, Jamaica, and North America. It was known as one of our native plants to the earliest of our herbalists, for in " The seconde parte of William Turner's herball," published in 1568, he calls it " English Mayderis heare," and the woodcut leaves no doubt that it was our Asplenium trichomanes. He says "the juice stayeth the heare that falleth of, and if they be fallen off, it restoreth them agayne." Many other of our old medical writers speak of this Fern as that from which Capittaire is made, and there is little doubt but that it would impart as much virtue to that compound as does the Adiantum capillus veneris, or True Maidenhair, of which it ought to be made. It has, however, still some local reputation, the Highland dames of Scotland often forming from it a tea which 62 ASPLENIUM TRICHOMANES. they administer to those who are afflicted with coughs or colds. Gerarde is the first writer who mentions any place in England where it was native. He says " I round it growing in a shadowy, sandy lane in Betsome, in the parish of Southfleet, in Kent. It groweth, likewise upon stone-walls at Her Majesty's (Queen Elizabeth's,) Palace of Richmond, and on most stone-walls of tne west and north parts of England." It will grow freely on the shady side of rockwork in the open air, but the soil must be composed only of sandy peat, old mortar, and fragments of brick in equal proportions. It can be grown in a Wardian Case, and in a greenhouse, but requires the same soil, perfect drainage, and a frequent change of air. The best time for transplanting this Fern is in April. Those growing on a hedge-bank should be preferred for transplanting, because, unless the bricks can be taken with, them, those growing on walls can scarcely be moved without a fatal injury to the roots. Those growing in the fissures of rocks are moved with quite as much difficulty and uncertainty of success as those on walls. Young plants should be preferred before old ones for removal. They should have a bell-glass turned over them for a few days after their transplanting. Plants already in cultivation may be propagated by division also in April. In dividing the tuft, a crown must be preserved to each division. We have never raised it from seed, but we have no doubt that spores collected when ripe in August, and ASPLENIUM TBICHOMANES. 63 sown upon the surface of the soil, such as we have directed for the growth of the plants, covered with a bell-glass, and placed in a shady part of a greenhouse, or of a cold frame, would give birth to seedlings. 64 ASPLKXIUM VIR1DB. - ASPLE'NIUM VI'RIDE. ;'.;.- THIS is called, in English, the Green Spleenwort, Green- ribbed Spleenwort, and Green Maidenhair Spleenwort, and, indeed, it is its greenness, lighter and brighter in the leafits, and entirely so in the stalk, which chiefly distinguishes it from Asplenium trichomanes. The main root is dark chesnut-coloured, and some what more carrot-shaped than that of A. trichomanes , the fibrous roots are also less numerous than in that species. The top of the root is tufted, and from the tuft arise the fronds. Of these the stalks are rather more upright, and more free from leafits at the bottom than in A. trichomanes; this bottom part is dark chesnut-coloured, but the whole of the upper part is green, and this is the chief permanent character dis- tinguishing it from A. trichomanes, The stalk is smooth, the lower third without leafits, and the whole varying between about three and ten inches in height. The greater stature being found in specimens growing in moist, sheltered situations. The end of the frond is sometimes divided into two or three branches. The leafits vary much in form, being mostly rbomboidal, but sometimes egg-shaped, and at others spear-head shaped, usually tapering towards their sta'k, which is very short and slender, not always alternate, and not so close together, nor blunt-ended, as in A. trichomanes, but their upper edges are much more scolloped than in that species. The mid-vein produces side-veins, usually ASPLE'NIUH ASPLENIUM VIRIDE. 67 alternate, which are mostly, but not always, forked, and their ends rarely extend to the edge of the leafit. The fructification is from two to six masses on each leant, more yellowish-brown than in A. trichomanes, and more in the middle of the leafit than in that species, and though they finally usually run together and cover the back of the leafit, yet they never reach its edge, but leave a regular border of the leant round the ripe fructifica- tion. At first the fructification- is covered with a narrow membrane ; but this is thrown off as the seeds (spores) ripen, which occurs about the end of August. The frond branching at the end is not permanent even in the same plant, yet some botanists have distinguished it as a variety. It is the Asplenium trichomanes ramosum of Linnsaus, and the Trichomanes ramosus of Bauhin and some others. It will be seen from the above description that the species very closely resembles A. triehomanes, though, as observed by Mr. Francis, it is immediately dis- tinguished from it by the lighter colour of all its parts, and especially the greenness of the stalk, its less- spreading fructification, differently shaped and more alternate leafits, which leafits on the lower part of the frond are generally wide apart, whilst the leafits near its top are more crowded, and the whole plant is much more delicate and graceful. T- (Analysis of British Ferns. 52.) It is found on moist rocks and old walls in some of our mountain districts. In England, not further south than Derbyshire ; but it has been gathered in Northum- 68 ASPLENIUM VIRIDE. berland; between Widdy Bank and Caldron Snout in Durham ; on Mazebeck Scars in Westmorland ; at Gordale, Ais-la-beck, Eicbmond, Settle, near Halifax, and at Black Bank, near Leeds, in Yorkshire. In Wales, on Cader Idris, Crib y Ddeseil, Clogivyn, and Snowdon. In Scotland, in Boss- shire, in Cawdor Woods, near Nairn, at the foot of Benmore, Sutherlandshire, and all over the Highlands. In Ireland, on Turk Mountain, Killarney; Ben Bulben, Sligo; and near Lough Eske on the Donegal Mountains. The branched sub-variety was found, by Mr. Plukenet, on a stone wall in Mr. Owen's garden, at Maidstone, in Kent, but we think this must have been introduced there. Another sub-variety has been found with its leafits deeply lobed and cut. It scarcely can be doubted that the old botanists and herbalists confounded this species with A. triehomanes, and we should not have been aware that they had noticed it at all, if Gerard, Bauhin, Bay, and others, had not mentioned the branched-fronded sub-variety, which Gerard called Triehomanes fcemina, whilst Eay and others described it as T. ramosum, The first botanist recognising it as a distinct species was Cordus, who, in 1561, published it in his " Historia Stirpium," under the title of Adiantum album, though he gives the same woodcut of it as he does for Triehomanes. The first to name it Asplenium viride, we believe, was Hudson, in his " Flora Anglica," published during 1762. It is usually removed with much difficulty from its ASPLENIUM VIRIDE. 69 native places, but we have succeeded in cultivating it by adopting the same precautions as we have directed for A. trichomanes. It requires, even more than does that species, attention to avoid stagnant air and stagnant water. ATHYRIUM F1LIX FCEMINA. ^ATHY'EIUM FI'LIX FCE'MINA. THIS most graceful of all the British Ferns, on that account, well deserves its popular name of TJie Lady Fern. It is also known as the Female Shield Fern, Female Polypody, and Drooping Lady Fern. Its root is large, brown, and tufted, often becoming, in old plants, very large and stem-like, but even then lying upon the surface of the soil. The fronds are re- markably lightly formed, plume-like, and graceful, rising in considerable numbers from the tuft, and forming a strikingly beautiful group. They vary in height from nine to eighteen inches; but whatever the height (which is greatest in moist, shady, sheltered situations), about one-third of the lowest part of the stem is without leaflets, but swollen at the base, which is also usually covered with long scales. The general outline of the frond is narrow spear-head-shaped. The leaflets vary much in their arrangement, being usually alternate, but, sometimes, opposite, and, sometimes, far apart, but in other instances very close together. They vary in num ber from twenty to forty pairs, are narrow spear- head" shaped, very gradually tapering to a single leant, lower ones and upper ones often bending back, or drooping. The leafits very numerous, linear-oblong, or broad spear- head-shaped, sharp-pointed, lobed, and deeply-toothed, the lower lobes the largest. The veining very distinct, mid-rib, or vein, waved. Fructification on the upper edge of side veins in segment-of-circle, or kidney-shaped ATHY'BICM FI'I.IX FCE'MINA. ATHYBIUM FILIX FCEMINA. 73 masses, becoming, finally, nearly routd, but never running together; cover, or indusium, white, at first oblong with a broad base, afterwards kidney-shaped, but not swollen ; it opens towards the mid-rib, the edge of its opening side being finely jagged. The seeds (sori) are numerous and brown. No Fern native of the British Isles is so variable in its forms as this, and Mr. Charles Johnson justly remarks: " Such differences have afforded a wide scope for specula- tive botanists to indulge their fancies in the multiplication of species and varieties, and were the wishes and advice of all my kind correspondents to be attended to in regard to the latter, I might exhaust the Greek alphabet from alpha to omega in prefixes. The claim advanced on behalf of a few of the varieties to rank as species, should be very cautiously examined before its admission; those who recommend or incline to their adoption would do well to bear in mind the plasticity of vegetable nature, and the very uncertain tenure of specific distinction in the aggregate, not in this class only, bat in groups far higher in grade, and in which features of more determinate character can be arraigned in evidence of supposed dissimilarity. The three principal forms, includ- ing the normal one, that are considered best entitled to the rank in question, are thus characterized : " 1. incisum. Fronds more or less drooping, broadly lan- ceolate : pinna (leaflets) distant: pinnules (leafits) lan- ceolate, distinct, flat, pinnatifid with toothed lobes. Sori distinct. A. Filix-fcemina, Roth. " 2. molle. Fronds nearly erect, lax, lanceolate : pinnae ap- proximate : pinnules oblong, connected by the wing of the midrib, flat, toothed. Sori distinct. A. molle, Roth. " 3. convexum. Fronds nearly erect, rigid, narrow-Ian ceo- 74 ATHYRIUM FILIX FCEMINA. late : pinnae distant, convex : pinnules distant, linear, toothed or pinnatifid, convex, with deflexed margins. Son short, numerous, eventually confluent. A. rhaticum, Roth. Mnore, Hanb. 186. Aspidium irriguum ? Smith. E. B. 2199. This is, unquestionably, the most decided charactered of all the forms, and less positively associated with them by inter- mediates. " Besides the numerous slight variations in habit, and in the outline and division of the frond, several remarkable monstrosities are met with in cultivation ; of these the variety crispum is the most common, and its dwarf, clustered, and much-divided fronds resemble a tuft of curled parsley a figure of one of the fronds is given by Mr. Moore, Handb. 142. It was originally found by Mr. A. Smith, on Orah Hill, Antrim, Ireland, and since by Sir W. C. Trevelyan, in Braemar, Scotland. Another Irish variety, still more pecu- liar, is given by Mr. Newman, Hist. Brit. Ferns, 21 8." It is not at all uncommon in the southern and mid- land counties of England, and is still more abundant in Ireland ; indeed, so abundant upon its bogs as to be used as the common Brake Fern is in England, for packing fruit and fish. Except in particular localities, it is more rare in the northern parts of Wales, England, and Scotland. Sir Walter Scott correctly described the situation it most delights in when he said Where the copse wood is the greenest, Where the fountain glistens sheenest, Where the morning dew liest longest, There The Lady Fern grows strongest, It is found in many other parts of Europe and North America. ATHYRIOM PILIX FCEMINA. 75 The Lady Fern is first mentioned as a British plant by Johnson, in his edition of Gerard's " Herbal," and we have the very rare pleasure of knowing not only the year but the day of its discovery. " Never," says Johnson, " have I seen any figure resembling this plant. It groweth abundantly on the shadowy, moist rocks by Mapledurham, near Petersfield, in Hampshire John Goodyer. July 4, 1633." It was known, however, both to Gerard and Bauhin, as a species of Filix mas, and the editor of Ray's " Synopsis " of British Plants, as late as 1724, describes it as " The Male Fern with thin-set, deeply indented leaves." Modern botanists have not been unanimous about this Fern's characteristics, hence we find it m their volumes, not only as an Athyrium, but as an Aspidium, Polypo- dium, and Asplenium April is the best season for propagating, either by transplanting, or by division of established plants. It is one of the easiest cultivated of all the British Ferns. "When placed about rock work, it should occupy a low boggy situation at the base of the rock, being planted amongst turfy soil, kept thoroughly moistened, either naturally or artificially. It is far less beautiful if planted in dry exposed situations. Few hardy plants which can be introduced among rock work are so thoroughly lovely as a vigorous Lady Fern, placed just within the mouth of a cavernous recess, large enough to admit of its development, and just open enough that the light of day may gleam across the dark back-ground sufficient to reveal the droop- ing feathery fronds ; and, what is more, it will delight to grow in such a situation, if freely supplied with moisture to 76 ATIIYRIUM FILIX FffiMINA. its roots. In woodland walks, or on the shady margin of ornamental water, no fern can be more appropriately intro- duced. When grown in a pot, it requires one of rather a large size, and should be planted in turfy soil, intermixed with fragments of charcoal, sandstone, or potsherds. To attain anything like a fair degree of its lady-like graceful- ness, this fern must under all circumstances be well sup- plied with water." Moore's British Ferns. BLECHNUM BOREALE. 79 /'' BLE'CHNUM BOREA'LE. THE English names by which this Fern is known are Rough Spleenwort, Northern Hard Fern, Rough Milt- waste, and Great or Wild Spleenwort. Its main root is black, scaly, tufted, and furnished with numerous stout rootlets. The fronds have a smooth and polished stalk but the leafless portion at the bottom is purple, shaggy and scaly. They are numerous, narrow-spear-head- shaped, tapering to a point at each end. The barren fronds, from eight to twelve inches high, are outermost evergreen, and become prostrate. They have nume- rous, close, parallel, spear-head-shaped, entire, single- ribbed leaflets, rather blunt, but with a minute point. The fertile fronds, always erect, and from twelve to twenty-four inches high, are surrounded by the barren fronds, and are not so numerous, but are taller, and their leaflets are much narrower, more pointed, more spread out at their base, and more distant from each other than those on the barren fronds. Their edges are re- curved. The stalk mostly purple. The fructification is in a narrow line on each side of the mid-rib of each leaflet, and between two side veins which run slantingly upwards about half way to the edge of the leaflet, turn abruptly, and then run parallel with the mid-rib. The cover (indusium) is a whitish membrane, separating at the side next the rib, and exposing the very numerous crowded brown spores, each bound with a jointed ring. These are ripe about the end of August. All the 80 BLECHNUM BOREALE. fronds are dark green. Sometimes a frond is partly fertile and partly barren. Varieties of this Fern occasionally occur. In one, the leafllets are shortened, and assume the form of scollops with an irregularly toothed edge. In another variety the end of the frond is forked. It is easily cultivated if moved from its native place early in April, with abundance of soil about the roots, so that these are disturbed but little, and if it is planted in some well-drained place, as rockwork, where it is shaded from much sun, and supplied regularly and abundantly with moisture. The soil for it is best com- posed of one part peat, one part leaf-mould, and two parts stiffish loam well mixed together. We have not found it thrive either in a Wardian case or in a green- house; but a writer in THE COTTAGJE GARDENER, vol. xv., p. 261 , says, " Having grown it to a great extent, I can say, confidently, that it will grow, and that, too, most luxuriantly, in a greenhouse. I have had plants of it in twenty-four sized pots, throw out eight-and-thirty fronds, fourteen of which were fertile; and it was that, and a fine plant of Scolopendrium, undulatum, that attracted the notice of most visitors, for they were really noble plants. I have also grown each of these very successfully in a stove temperature, and also many other hardy Ferns." It is found wild in various soils and places in open healthy grounds, as well as in moist shady hedges. ' It has been found in St. Faith's Newton woods near Norwich; at Hainsford in Norfolk; in lanes about BLECHNUM BORE ALE. 81 Actcm Park, near Birmingham ; at the bottom of the thicket in the vale of Dudecombe, near Paiuswick ; abundantly on Hampstead Heath ; in lanes about Bromsgrove Lickey, Worcestershire ; at Trossacks, Loch Katrine ; iii Anglesea ; in various parts of Hert- fordshire, and of the northern counties. Mr. Francis says that it is spread throughout England and Scot- land, and in Ireland, especially ia the counties of Wicklow and Clare. It ascends to 700 feet above the sea's level in Cumberland, to 800 in Forfarshire, and much higher in the Cairngorum Mountains in Aber- deenshire, where it probably attains to elevations of 1,200 or 1,300 feet. It ia of common occurrence in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, North-west America, and even in the Canary Islands, and at the Cape of Good Hope. The first author who mentions this as a native of Great Britain is Gerarde, who says it " groweth in most parts of England, but especially on a heath by London, called Hampstead Heath, where it groweth in great abundance." In his " Herbal " as well as in Parkin- son's, there is a very good wood-cut of this Fern. The last-named author says, " this is called Fox Fern in many places of this land." Dodoens, and all the other herbalists we have named, state that it "is very good against the hardness, stoppings, and swellings of the Spleen or Melt" and it is to this opinion that the Spleen- worts, or Meltwastes, owe their generic name. By more modern botanists it has been wildly named Osmunda spicant, Bleclmum spicant, Lomaria spicant. 82 BLECHNUM BOKEALE. Asplenium spicant, and Acrostichum spioant. Spicant is its name in the German language, in which it was first named in modern times. It is curious that Linnaeus, in total neglect of his own characteristics of the two genera Osmunda and Blechnum, placed this Fern in the genus first-named. This mistake was first pointed out by Haller, but it was not until 1793, in the " Memoirs of the Turin Royal Academy of Sciences," that this Fern was correctly placed among the Blechnuma. BOTRY'CHIUM LUNA'RIA. rfOTRYCHIUM LUNARIA. 85 BOTKY'CHIUM LUNA'RIA. J V THIS is known as Common Moonwort, Stnatt Lunary and Moonwort. Its root is composed of a slender tap-root, from which issue numerous simple, cylindrical, yellowish fibres, like those of a Hyacinth, and proceeding in a whorl, or circle, from the tap-root, but spreading horizontally in the soil. Stem simple, cylindrical, pale green, erect, nine inches high, with a few large, brown, sheathing scales at the bottom. It has only one leaf springing from about the middle of the stem, which leaf has five or six pairs of fan-shaped, pale milky-green, short- stalked leaflets, and a terminal leaflet of the same form. Each lea/let is scolloped, or toothed, on the edge, and. usually, more or less lobed. The stem ends in a doubly- compound spike of small, round, light brown capsules. These are nearly stalkless, and are arranged somewhat over-lapping each other on one flat side of the stalk, or receptacle. Spores oval, smooth, and, usually, jointeo together in pairs. There are three varieties, viz : 1. with several stalks and leaves ; 2. with leaves much more cut and jagged than usual ; and 3. with the leaflets divided into leafits. Its usual birth-places are mountain meadows and pastures. It is not common, though found in various parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland. It has been collected in Westmorland ; at Mear Bank, by Sykes 86 BOTRYCHIUM LUNARIA. Wood, Ingleton, and at Settle, in Yorkshire; Scadbury Park, and Chisselhurst Common, Kent ; on the north side of Bredon Hill, in Worcestershire ; at Shirehamptou, and on Kiugs-Weston-Hill, near Bristol ; near Bury, in Suffolk ; on Stratton Heath, in Norfolk ; on coal-pit banks, near Stourbridge ; at Bootle, near Liverpool ; on the sea-coast between South Shields and Sunderland; on Oversley Hill, near Alcester ; and near Alaw and Aberffraw rivers, in Anglesea. In Scotland, on Ard- garth Hill, to the north of Linlithgow ; near Dun- donalds, two miles from Little Loch Broom, on the west coast of Koss-shire, and in the Isle of Skye. In Ireland, on the rising ground of a meadow, about two hundred yards north or tne second lock of Lagan Canal. The first English botanist who mentions this Fern is Turner, who, in the third part of his "Herbal," published in 1568, gives a very good woodcut of the plant, and, after its description, adds, " it may be called wel in Englishe Cluster Lunarye, or Cluster Moonwort." Gerard, writing a few years subsequently, mentions many places where it had been found ill England, and after describing its appearance, and stating its various appellations, proceeds to observe, that " Small Moon- wort is singular to heal green and fresh wounds. It hath been used among the alchymists and witches to do wonders withall, who say that it will loose locks, and make them to fall from the ieet of horses that graze where it doth grow, and hath been called of them Martagon, whereas, in truth, they are all but drowsy BOTRYCHIDM LUNABIA. 87 dreams and illusions ; but it is singular for wounds, as aforesaid." Bauhiu, in his Historia Plantarum, gives a copious account of this Fern, with three very good delineations of it and it varieties. He says the alchymists employed its juice for fixing Mercury. Coles, in his Adam in Eden, p. 561, tells us; " It is said, yea, and believed by many, that moontcort will open the locks wherewith dwelling-houses are made fast, if it be put in the key-hole ; as also that it will loosen the locks, fetters, and shoes from those horses' feet that goe on the places where it groweth ; and of this opinion was Master Gulpeper, who, though be railed against superstition in others, yet had enough of it himselfe, as may appear by his story of the Earl of Essex his horses, which being drawn up in a body, many of them lost their shoes upon White Dowue ,in Devonshire, near Tiverton, because moonwort grows upon heaths." Turner, in his British Physician, 8vo. Lond. 1687, p. 209, is confident that though moonwort " be the moon's herb, yet it is neither smith, farrier, nor picklock." Withers, in allusion to the supposed virtues of the moonwort, in the introduction to his Abuses Stript and Whipt, 1622, says: " There is an herb, some say, whose vertue's such It in the pasture, only with a touch,' Unshooes the new-shod steed." To induce it to grow in a Fern garden it should be moved with a square foot of the turf in which it is growing, and as much of depth of the soil undisturbed, 88 BOTRTCHIUM LTJNARIA. and planted upon an open, unshaded, well-drained situation. It requires a soil light, and mixed with a little peat. It likes to have its roots covered with turf, but even the grass must not overshadow it. We never succeeded well in its culture. CE'TERACH OFFICINA'BUM. CETERACH OFFIC1NAKUM. 91 /" CETERACH OFFICINA'RUM. THIS bears the various English names of Scaly Spleen- wort, Rough Spleenwort, Scale Fern, Scaly Hart's Tongue, and Miltwaste. The root is fibrous, black, tufted, and scaly at the crown, penetrating deeply into the old mortar of the walls, and into the clefts of the limestone rocks, on which it delights to grow. The fronds are evergreen, numerous, tufted, and spreading; varying in height from three to eight inches ; oblong, bluntish , deeply and bluntly indented at the edges, the indentations being alternate ; the margin of the leaf smooth. When growing in sheltered, shady situations, the indentations often are so deep as almost to render the fronds leafleted. Their upper surface is smooth ; in colour deep green, but slightly milky, or glaucous ; the upper surface of the mid-rib is scaly. The under side of the fronds is entirely covered thickly with pointed, saw-edged, brown scales, lapping over one another. Before the fronds are expanded these scales are white and silvery. The stalk of each frond is about one-fifth of its length, dark- coloured, and covered with pointed, brown scales. If the scales are removed from the under surface of the fronds, the fronds will be found to have alternate lateral veins uniting at their points near the edge of the frond. The seed, or sori, are in oblong narrow masses attached, except the lowest mass, to the upper side of the principal branches of the veins. The covers 92 CETERACH OFFICINARUM. (indusium) of the sori are one on each side of each mass, membranous, continuous, quite distinct from the scales. In England it has been found near Lancaster ; abundantly about Settle, in Yorkshire ; on limestone rocks, in Lath-hill-dale, and in Dovedale, Derbyshire; on walls about the quarries at Ludlow, Shropshire ; on an old wall near Cowley, in Oxfordshire ; on a wall at Tocknells, near Painswick, in Gloucestershire ; at Martock, in Somerset ; at Stapleton Quarries, near Bristol ; at Cheddar, Malvern Abbey, and Bath ; on the tower of Old Alresford Church, Hants; on walls on the east and north-east side of Winchester; at Topsham, and other places, in Devon ; at Bury, in Suffolk ; Heydon, in Norfolk ; and Asheridge, in Hertfordshire. In Wales, in Denbighshire ; on the walls of a ruin at Treborth, near Bangor. In Ireland, on the ruins of Saggard Church ; on walls near Cork, and Kilkenny ; on Cave-hill ; and at Headford, in Galway. In Scot- land, it has been found near Drumlanrig, in Dumiries- shire; on the ruins of Tona; at Drumlanrig Castle; and at Kinoul Hill, near Perth. (Cottage Gardener, xv. 398.) We have never attempted to cultivate this Fern, and must borrow from Mr. Charles Johnson the following remarks upon the subject : " It is not at all easy to cultivate this fern Successfully : it is too impatient of confinement to live long in a green- house ; and the cold frame, so useful for the protection of other half-hardy species, is almost certain death to this CETEBACH OFFICINARUM. 93 The metropolitan cultivator is told that London air disagrees with it, and yet the only plant of it I possessed in my early career, lived in a nook of an old wall, in a back area in Hatton Garden, for several years, and may be there still, unless eradicated by repair; sun never reached it, and ancient mortar, which, constantly moist, had somewhat the consistence of paste, probably agreed with its constitution ; a very necessary point to be studied in planting, as when left to its own selection, or in the wild state, it seems universally to prefer a calcareous habitat. "Whether planted in the open fernery, or grown in pots, great care must be exercised as to drainage, and in the latter case especially to avoid wetting the fronds in watering." The first writer who describes it as an English plant is Turner. In the first part of his " Herbal," published in 1551, he says, " it groweth muche in Germanye, in old moiste walles, and in rockes; it groweth also in England about Bristowe (Bristol)." He adds, " I have heard no English name of this herbe, but it maye well be called in English Ceteracke, or Miltwaste, cr Finger Ferae, because it is no longer than a manue's finger, or Scale Ferae, because it is all full of scales on the innersyde. It hath leaves lyke in figure unto Scolo- pendra, the beste, which also called Centipes, is not unlike a great and rough palmer's worme." There is no doubt that it is the Asplenium mentioned by Dioscorides and others of the old Greek writers, who attributed to it a marvellous influence over the spleen ; so marvellous that Vitruvius tells us it destroyed that organ in the Cretan swine which fed upon it. This opinion of the " Miltwasting " power of this Fern lasted 94 CETERACH OFFICINARUM. until the time of Elizabeth ; for Gerarde, then writing, says, " There be Empericks or blinde practitioners of this age, who teach, that with this herbe not only the hardnesse and swelling of the Spleene, but all infirmities of the liver also may be effectually, and in very short time removed, insomuch that the sodden liver of a beast is restored to his former constitution agaiue, that is, made like unto a raf Jirer, if it bee boyled ngatue with .his herbe. " But this is to be reckoned among the old wives fables, and that also which Dioscorides telleth of, touching the gathering of Spleenewoort in the night, and other most vaine things, which are found here and there scattered in old books : from which most of the later writers do not abstaine, who many times fill up their pages with lies and frivolous toies, and by so doing do not a little deceive young students." Although neglected as a medicinal herb, it is still of some commercial value, being used as a bait for rock- cod fishing on the coast of Wales. The Rev. Hugh Davies says, it was becoming very scarce about Holy- head owing to its consumption for that purpose. This and some other Ferns are extremely retentive of life, of which we have this testimony from Dr. Daubeny, Professor of Agriculture, at Oxford. " I have a specimen of Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense which has been preserved in a bottle, corked and sealed over, for more than three years, and which, even now, judging from its appearance, would seem to be living. For tht- first two years it looked as fresh as CETERACH OFFICINARUM. 95 when first introduced; and although some of the fronds have now become black and shrunk, many are still fresh and expanded. " On communicating this circumstance to a corres- pondent, I received the following statement, which may be worth recording as an example of tenacity of life among Ferns, in common with their allies the mosses; A lady in Ireland found among her dried specimens one of the Grammitis Ceterach, which had been above two years in a port-folio in a very dry, warm room, and after planting it in a pot and covering it close, she had the satisfaction to see it come again to life. Afterwards a fresh young frond came up, which continued to flourish at the time this information was given, and all the old ones have now withered away." Dr. Daubeny, it will be seen, calls the Ceterach officinarum by another name, Grammitis Ceterach. It is so called by some botanists, whilst by others it is known as Scolopendrium Ceterach, Asplenium Ceterach, Notolepeum Ceterach, and Gymnopteris Ceterach. 96 CYSTOPTERIS ALPINA. '/ CYSTOTTEPJS ALPI'NA. THIS very pretty Fern has been variously named. Linnaeus and others called it Polypodium regium; some entitled it Aspidium regium ; and by a third group of Botanists it is described under the title of Cyathea regia. In English it is called Alpine Bladder-Fern, Laciniated Bladder-Fern, and Three-cleft Polypody. The name of Bladder-Fern was bestowed upon the genus because the indusium or cover of each mass of spores is inflated like a bladder. The main body of the root is short, tufted, and scaly, producing numerous scattered dark-coloured fibrous rootlets. The fronds issuing from the tufted top of the root are numerous, varying in height from three to even twelve inches ; they are bright green, their general out- line spear-head-shaped, the leaflets so deeply lobed as to almost form leafits; and these lobes are mostly three on each side-stalk of the leaflet. Each lobe is egg-shaped, blunt, and very finely cut, or laciuiated at the edges. The segments into which the lobes are cut are long-oval- shaped and partly notched, but not long and narrow, nor wavy-edged like those of Cystopteris angustata, nor are their ribs zig-zagged as in that species. The leaflets are almost opposite to each other, yet are just sufficiently otherwise to justify their being described as alternate. The unleafed part of the stem (stipe) of each frond is -^ ^ v i a n * *iVA i, W*2^r ^fe- ^vf^ ^^ife 7 -.-- ^ ^\s,r^- CTSTO'PTERIS ALPl'NA. CYSTOPTERIS ALPINA. 99 about one-third of its whole length ; and is smooth except at the base, where a few brown pointed scales occur. The fructification is near the edge of the lobe, and consists of very copious masses of little bladders, small, scattered, not crowded at any time, and pale brownish coloured. Whilst in a young state each mass is wrapped in a white, membranous, concave cover, ending in a tape ring jagged point; thus nearly resembling Cystopterii fragilis, but the fructification is in smaller masses than those of that species, nor are the spores ever black as in that species, but are pale brown. This is a Fern very rarely found in Great Britain ; so rarely, indeed, that many Botanists have doubted, we think on insufficient grounds, its title to a place among our native plants. Mr. Lhwyd first discovered it on Snowdon, as an xiounced in the second edition of Ray's Synopsis, in 1896 ; Mr. Griffiths found it on Cwm Idwell in Wales; Mr. W. Christy found it on rocks at the dropping well of Knaresborough ; Hooker states, on the authority of Mr. Maughan, that it was found on Ben Lawers in Scotland; Mr. Shepherd, of Liverpool, sent specimens to Mr. Moore, which specimens, he stated, were "gathered in Derbyshire and Yorkshire, but without assigning more particular habitats." Mr. Foster found it at Low Layton in Essex, and announced his discovery in Symon's Synopsis, some time in the year 1793. It has been found at the same place by Mr. W. Famplin in 1835, and by Mr. E. H. Bolton in 1840. 100 CYSTOPTERIS ALPIXA. Sir J. E. Smith thus speaks of its discovery and history : " The !owland station of this Fern, close to a much-fre- quented road at Low Layton, where I have, in company with the late Mr. Forster, seen it covering great part of a brick wall, may be supposed analogous to its places of growth in France ; but we seek in vain for any information on this head either in Vaillant or Lamarck, nor is it evident that the latter ever found the plant. The wall at Layton has been repaired, and the Fern almost destroyed. On Snowdon it is said to be very scarce, though Mr. Wilson, with his usual bounty, has sent me an ample supply of specimens of various sizes. He describes it as " varying greatly in size and appearance, but always distinct from ihe/rugUis." The cover, as that gentleman remarks, " is in both species, con- nected with the frond by its base only, at the lower side of the mass of capsules, that is, on the side next the base of the segment of the leaflet;" which agrees with my observations. This Fern is well compared by Bobart, in Morison, to the Cicutaria of old authors, our Charophyllum sylvestre, so common on banks in the spring. It is unquestionably distinct from every other British Fern, though the proper name and synonyms were not discovered till after its ap- pearance in Engl. Bot., where I fell into the same error with some foreign botanists. Linnasus once thought it a Swedish plant, but erroneously, nor had he an original or authentic specimen. " The remarks of Dr. Kichardson, inserted between brackets, by Diilenius, in the third edition of Ray's Synopsis, 126. n. 8. Ed. 3., certainly do not answer to the present species ; as my late friend the Rev. Hugh Davies, an ex- cellent observer, first pointed out to me. " John Bauhin's synonym, which Ray quoted with doubt, appeai-s, by the really excellent figure, to be unquestionably CYSTOPTERIS ALPINA. 101 onr plant. It must be either this, or Aspldinm alpinwm, Willd. ii. 139., which is likewise a Cystea, figured in Jac. Ic. Ear. t. 642, and in Segu. Veron. Suppl. t. I./. 3. But neither the plant itself, not either of these representations, suits the wooden cut of Bauhin, which agrees far better with (7. regia, particularly in the shape of the leaflets. Haller, very unsuitably I think, refers it to Pteris crispa; which circumstance, and the singular jumble of synonyms under his n. 1707, Cystea frayilis, induces a suspicion that he had not accurately observed these alpine ferns, and especially that he had never seen Vaillant's Filicula regiu at all." On the culture of this, and other species of the genus, we have been obliged with the following notes from Mr. W. Btjevb, who has very successfully cultivated Ferns :-- " I have had several species of Cystopteris in my possession, but have not had all the species, but such as I have tried, I have always found to prefer and thrive best in well-drained situations. The only in- stance that I have of their cultivation, out-of-doors, was upon some rockwork which I formed at the north end of our conservatory, where there was a piece of brick- work (which did not look very sightly) about two-aud-a- half or three feet high, and I formed this rockwork to hide it, but you may imagine that the more elevated part of it must have been very much drained, when I had only about eighteen inches for the base. It was upon this piece of work that I placed (among other small, young Ferns) a plant of each of the Cystopteris that I had in my possession. They were three in number, Fragilis, Dickieana, and Alpina. " For cultivation in pots, I used, for compost, two parts 102 CYSTOPTEIIIS ALPINA. sandy loam, one of leaf-mould, and one of very finely- broken sandstone ; or, in default of this, old mortar broken fine, with a little silver-sand added, and good drainage. Great points in potting these small species of Fern are the state of the compost, and the way it is mixed and used. It should be of a nice dampness. In mixing, it should not be rubbed too intimately to- gether, but should be handled carelessly, as it were, and the plants potted firmly, in most cases, and if used in this state, and the plants are placed in a rather con- fined temperature, very little water must be given until they begin to emit new roots, which will not be long first, if the plant is in a healthy state ; and even if it is not in sound health, the withholding of the water-pot from it will do it more good than the application of it. The moisture in the compost will be sufficient for the roots until fresh ones are formed, and the moist atmo- sphere will help to supply the fronds. When planted in the rockwork a similar compost may be used. "Each of the species would make a nice plant for a Wardian case, I should think. I have grown DicJeieana under a bell-glass for a considerable time, and I have a specimen of Fragilis by me that I grew in a close tem- perature, but Dickieana and Alpina objected to heat more than Fragilis." CYSTO'PTEKIS ANGUSTA'fA. CYSTOPTERIS ANGUSTATA. 105 CYSTOTTEKIS ANGUSTA'TA. THIS has various English names, and among botanists, with still more varied want of certainty, has been placed in various genera, or been reduced even to a mere variety. It is known as the Deep-cut Mountain Bladder Fern, as the Stone Polypody, as the Red-stemmed Polypody, and in botanical works it is Polypodium rhaticum, Poly- podium ilvense, Aspidium fragile, Aspidium rhaticum, Cyathea fragilis, var. ft. and Cystopteris fragilis, var. angustata. We think that it has sufficiently distinctive cha- racteristics to retain it as a species. Moot tufted, some- what creeping, black, with rusty scales, and rootlets long. Fronds from six to fifteen inches high, rather numerous, erect ; stalk dark-red becoming black, nearly half its length naked, without any border, slender, and smooth. Leaflets bright green, nearly opposite, the lowermost rather shorter, and the pairs at greater distances from each other than those about the middle of the frond, all leafited with scarcely a border down the side of the midrib. Leafits alternate, spear-head shaped, rather bluntly pointed, sometimes, however, tapering at the end, all deeply cut, with oblong wavy, pointed segments; and the ribs of all somewhat wavy. The segments are always long and narrow, never broad, rounded, or egg- shaped, but sometimes, though rarely, cloven at the end. The leafits on the upper side of each leaflet are larger 106 CYSTOPTEEIS ANGUSTATA. than those on the lower side ; the cuts are all along the sides of the leafits. These characteristics distinctly dis- tinguish this Fern from Cystopteris fragilis, and C. centata. The fructification is round, and smaller, and less prominent than in those two species; always continuing distinct, standing either in solitary masses or in pairs, towards the bottom of each cut dividing two lobes from each other; at first pale, but finally becoming brown. The cover (indusium) white, very thin, concave, irregularly torn, soon pushed off, or aside, by the com- paratively large, though not numerous, shining brown capsules. It is found, but not commonly, in wooded places ou mountain!; and on shaded rocks ; as near Llanberis, in North Wales ; at Gordale, in Craven, Yorkshire ; on shaded rocks in many parts of Scotland ; on the moun- tains of Westmorland ; on the top of G-lyder Mountains, on the side overhanging Llyn Ogwen Lake, and near Ffynnon felon, and on the Leek Road, about a mile from Buxton. This Fern was first discovered in Hhaetia, whence its earliest name of RhcEticum, but it is first mentioned as a British Fern by Gerard, if his Filicula petrcea mas is really his name for the present species. There is, how- ever, much uncertainty about the early history of this Fern, and this uncertainty has been thus well-pointed out by the late Sir J. E. Smith. " Great confusion has always existed amongst our Biitish botanists concerning Polypodium (Cystopleris) rhteticum. Hooker has it not. Ligntfoot appears, by what he says in his FL CYSTOPTERIS ANGUSTATA. 107 Scot. 678, to have been acquainted, like Mr. Dickson, with our Cystva ( Cystopteris) angustata under that name ; and he quotes Gerarde rightly, justly objecting to Plukenet's t. 179. f. 5. Lightfoot's description is excellent, though he submits, as I have formerly done, to Haller, Weis, and others, who con- sider it as a variety of our O. fragilis. The late Mr. Davall took it for Haller's n. 1705 ; but that plant, with many errors in the synonyms, is certainly Aspidium dilatalum. Our Cystea (Cystopteris) angustata may be w. 1708 of Haller, but his references are confused. Mr. Hudson, on seeing Mr. Davall's specimens of the Fern in question, declared it very different from his own Polypodium rhteticum, which indeed is Aspidlum dumetorum. I have little scruple in referring the obscure and long-disputed figure of Clusius, reprinted in Gerarde, as above quoted, to this Cystea (Cystopteris) angustata, though the draughtsman has omitted the ultimate divisions of the leaflets, well enough expressed by Hoff- mann and Villars. I have never received this Fern from Wales, but if it be not Ray's Polypodium ilvense, it is wanting in the Synopsis. The wooden cut of Dalechamp, copied in J. Bauhin, and quoted doubtingly by Ray, should rather seem to be the totally different Acrostic/turn Marantte, as Bauhin himself suspected." The cultivation required by this Feru is the same as for Cystopteris alpina, stated at page 102. It requires, however, more shade, and does well under the shadow of other plants in a cool greenhouse. 108 CYSTOPTERIS DENTATA. </CYSTOTTEPJS DENTA'TA. THIS is the Toothed Bladder Fern, or Toothed Poly- pody, and has heen variously described as Polypodium dentatum, Aspidium dentatum, Cyathea dentata, and Cystea dentata, while some consider it merely a variety of Cystopteris fmgilis. Like C. angustata, we consider it sufficiently distinct to be retained as a species. Root tufted, small ; rootlets scattered, rather woolly and black. Frond, pale green, generally correctly doubly-leafleted (bipinnate), some of the lower leaflets only, and these in luxuriant specimens, being simply leaflted, or cut so as to be nearly leafited (pinnate or pinnatifid). The leaflets more or less spread horizon- tally ; nearly alternate. Leafits egg-shaped, or rounded (our drawing scarcely shows them sufficiently so), blunt, abundantly but bluntly toothed ; their ribs wavy, their bases not decurrent, though on a winged mid-rib. Fructification at the end of the veins, and when nu- merous, running together, or confluent, so as to seem like a border round the leafit. Stem about one half its length without leaflets, very slender, smooth, shining, in colour brownish-purple, and rather scaly at the base. From six to nine inches high, and not so brittle as in C.fragilis. This species does not appear to have been noticed by the older botanists, and to have been first discovered by Mr. Dickson, about the year 1784, in clefts of rocks in the highlands of Scotland. In Wales it has been found CTSTOPTERIS DENTATA. Ill at the foot of the walls of Castle Dinas Bran ; in Flint- shire, at Llangollen; in Denbighshire, on rocks north of the mansion of Trejorwerth. in Anglesea, and on Snowdon. In England it has been found between Widdy Bank, and Caldron Snout, in Durham. It may be cultivated, probably, the same as directed for C. alpina. 112 CYSTOPTERIS DICK1EAXA. 4-CYSTOTTEEIS DICKIEA'NA. THIS Fern was discovered in a cave upon the sea-shore near Aberdeen, and it has been named after its discoverer, Dr. Dickie. He found it during the year 1846, and we are not aware that it has been found elsewhere than in that cavern. Mr. Francis thinks that it is only a variety of Cystopteris fragilis ; whilst Mr. Moore and Mr. Babington make C. dentata a species, and consider that Dickieana is a variety of this. With such authorities against us, we hesitate to express our conviction that it is a species. However, as we feel that conviction, we are bound to record it. Even those who describe it as a variety acknowledge that it retains its characteristics under cultivation, and we have been told that it is reproduced from its spores. If this be so, there can be small doubt of its title to be ranked as a species, and we shall be much obliged by the communication of any information on this subject. Root tufted, pale brown. Frond dark green, pointed egg-shaped in its general outline ; leaflets inclining to a horizontal position, and so close together that the leafits overlap those on the leant next below. The leaflets are spear-head-shaped, and the leafits, if leafits they are, but they are so joined at their base as to be for the most part lobes, are crowded and overlapping, broad-egg- shaped, and finely-scollojed on their edges. The fructification is in very distinct masses, never running together, situated at the ends of the veins so as to form CYSTO'PTERIS DICKIEA'SA. CYSTOPTEBIS DICKIEANA. 115 a beading round each leafit, or lobe. The entire height of the frond varies from four to six inches; about one- fourth of its stem, which is stouter than in any other species of the genus, is without leaflets, and this un- leafleted part is at the base covered with brown scales. Since the above was written, we are confirmed in a satisfactory degree, by finding that Mr. Newman looks upon " Dickieana as a possible, but by no means established, species." " It is a perfectly healthy plant, not monstrous, nor distorted, and produced freely from seed, becoming a perfect weed." If this be so, no doubt is left upon our mind that C. Dickieana is a distinct species ; and that it does reproduce itself from spores we have the additional testimony of Mr. Moore, who says, " It is now common in cultivation, having been distributed liberally by Dr. Dickie, and is found to retain all its peculiarities, and to reproduce itself from spores." For its cultivation see page 102. 116 CYSTOPTERIS FRAGIT.ns, f CYSTOTTERIS FRA'GILIS THIS Fern has been also called by modern botanists Polypodium fragile, Polypodium album, Oyatheafragilis, and Aspidium fragile. Fragileness or brittleness is a striking characteristic of its stems, and as in its Latin names this is uniformly alluded to, so is it in its English title of Brittle Bladder Fern, and Brittle Polypody. Boot tufted, scaly, black, and having numerous fibrous rootlets ; it extends slowly, throwing out fresh crowns around the old one. Fronds many together, usually about six inches high, though in favourable situations, warm, moist, and shaded, they attain to nearly twelve inches. Their general outline is spear-headed but sharp-pointed, and their colour a bright green. The leaflets have the same spear-head form as the fronds, but are not so sharply pointed; they are not quite opposite, but so nearly so as scarcely to be described as alternate ; they clothe rather more than half the stem, and are not re- gularly arranged. The leafits are usually alternate, pointed-egg-shaped, but in barrep fronds blunt, tapering at the base and decurrent, their eSge deeply, numerously, and sharply toothed ; the lower leafits are so deeply cut sometimes as to be nearly formed into smaller leafits, and such form may be described as doubly-leafited. Stem reddish-brown, becoming almost black, very slender, brittle, juicy, smooth, but with a few scales at the very bottom. The fructification on almost all the side-veins, and near their end. It is in round masses, numerous, CYSTO'PTEBIS FRA/OILIS. CYSTOPTERIS FRAGILIS. 119 crowded, and finally running together ; at first pale, but becoming black, and covering the whole back of each leafit. The cover (indusium) of the masses of spores is white, loose, membranous, sinking inward, irregularly jagged, sometimes lengthened to a point, but soon turned back, and forced off by the spores, which are black when young, but become browner with age. This species is extremely liable to alter its form ac- cording to the temperature of the season, and the moist- ness or dryuess of the situation ; but such alterations are not in any way permanent. It is not an uncommon Fern in mountain districts, especially on old walls, and chalky, damp, shaded rocks. In England it has been found at Richmond, and Settle, in Yorkshire; Peveril Castle, Peak's Hole, Castleton, Lovers Leap, near Buxton, and Matlock, in Derbyshire ; near Hyde, in Gloucestershire ; Cheddar, in Somersetshire; in Nottinghamshire; near Bristol; on the ground from Bourn Heath to Wormsash, near Bromsgrove ; and at Exwick, near Exeter. In Wales, in a cave at Clogwyn Coch, Suowdon, rocks above Cwnn Idwel, near Twll Der, and near Wrexham. In Scotland, in Aberdeenshire, Moray, Ross-shire, near Haens, in Berwickshire; Sutherland and the Kin- cardinshire coast ; and near Killin. In Ireland, in Kerry, at Lough Inn, and Lough Derryclare, Connamarn. The first time this Fern is mentioned as a native of Britain, we think, was in 1696, by Ray, in the second edition of his " Synopsis Methodica Sterpium Britan- 120 CYSTOPTERIS FBAGILIS. nicutn." He calls it " Filix saxatilis caule tenui fragile i Fine-cut Stone Fern, with slender and brittle stalks. On old stone walls and rocks in the mountains of the Peak, in Derbyshire, and in the West-riding of York- shire, and in Westmoreland plentifully. Dr. Tancred Robinson found this Fern on the dropping rock at Knaresborough, from which the petrifying water distils." The cultivation of this species is the same as that of Cystopteris alpina previously stated, and in addition we quote the following from Mr. Moore's " British Ferns " : " From the delicate texture of this Fern, and its adap- tability to various situations, it is well suited for cultivation ; and grows vigorously planted either on. rockwork or in pots, and placed either within a frame or without one in a shel- tered and shady position ; it however becomes most oeau- tiful when developed in the damp close atmosphere of a frame or glazed case. The small size of the plant renders it more convenient for pot culture than many other kinds. The other species of Cystopteris are similar in habit, and may be cultivated in the same manner. The dormant crowns should not be kept too damp during the winter. They all propagate readily by separating the crowns when- ever more than one is formed, and most of them form new crowns rapidly." CYSTO'PTEBIS MONTA'HA. CTSTOPTERIS MONTANA. 123 CYSTOTTEKIS MONTA'NA. THIS has long been known as a Fern of the highest alpine districts of Europe, North America, and Kamtschatka ; but it was not until 1836 that it was ascertained to be a British species. In that year it was discovered by Mr. W. Wilson on Ben Lawers, one of the Bredalbane Mountains. It has been called by botanists Polypodium montanum and myrrhidifolium, Aspidium montanum, Cystopteris montana and myrrhidifolia. and Cyathea montana. In English it is known as the Mountain Bladder Fern, and Wilson's Bladder Fern. The root is thread-like, scaly, black, and far-creeping, f he fronds strikingly triangular in their outline. Their stalk long, stout, green, and smooth, except near the bottom, where there are some scattered brown scales. The leaflets are alternate, and occupy only the upper third of the stalk. The lowest pair of leaflets are very much larger than the others, and doubly-leafited ; but the leafits of the upper pairs of leaflets are only deeply lobed. The lateral veins of the leafits are alternate, and the fructification is at the ends of these lateral veins. The masses are circular, numerous, and become very prominent as they ripen. The membrane (indusium) is nearly round, forming a hood over the spores, and having its edge jagged. Mr. Moore observes that " Thb head-quarters in Britain of this very rare and local 124 CTSTOPTERIS MONTANA. Fern are the Highlands of Scotland, where it was found, first on Ben Lawers, one of the Bredalbane mountains, by Mr. Wilson, in company with Professors Hooker and Gra- ham, in 1886 ; and subsequently by Messrs. Gourlie. Adam- son, Borrer, and Little, and Dr. Walker Arnott in 1841, 1850, and 1851, in a ravine called Corrach Dh' Oufillach, or Corrach Uachdar, between Glen Dochart and Glen Lochay, in the Mhiel Oufillach mountains in Perthshire. It is reported to have been found in North Wales by Plukenet, and we are informed that the existence of the species in Wales has been recently confirmed, though the information is incomplete; it is not, however, improbable, as the species is met with in the Alps of Europe, occurring most frequently in the north, and generally on rough stony ground. It is also a native of the Rocky Mountains of North America. . " This is strictly an Alpine plant, and requires treatment similar to that recommended for the other species, with per- fect rest in winter." GYMNOGRA'MMA LEPTOPHY'LLA. GYMNOGRAMMA LEPTOPHYLLA. 127 GYMNOGRA'MMA LEPTOPHY'LLA. THIS is the Polypodium leptophyllum of Linnaeus, but he doubted whether it belonged to that genus, and in- clined to think it the link uniting Polypodium with Acrostichum and Osmunda. Decandolle considered it really a species of Acrostichum, and other botanists included it in Anogramma, Grammitis, Asplenium, and Osmunda. It was united with other species taken from Acrostichum and Hemionitis, to form the genus Gymno- gramma, by Desvaux, in 1808. This name, derived from gymnos, naked, and gramma, writing, alludes to the naked fructification in some species being arranged somewhat like writing in straight lines. It is an annual, or at most a biennial. Its root is a tuft of short, slender, black fibres. Its fronds are usually about the height represented in our drawing; but in warm, favourable situations it will sometimes be twice as high. The barren fronds, as shown in our drawing, are only half as tall as the fertile fronds ; they have from one to three fan-shaped leaflets, variously lobed, and at first resting upon the ground. The fertile fronds have a stout, pale brown, glossy stem, the leaflets occupy half its length, they are alternate, twice and sometimes thrice leafited, the leafits being also alternate, divided into three lobes, each lobe being two-toothed, so as to be somewhat reversed heart-shaped. A vein passes into each lobe and forks so as to extend a branch into each tooth of the lobe. On these forks, and along 128 GYMNOGRAMMA LEPTOPHYLLA. their whole length is the fructification. Finally, the spores run together, and usually cover the whole under surface of the leafit. This has long been known as a native of the southern continent of Europe, its adjacent islands, and Madeira, but it was not until 1852 that it was found to be a native of the British Isles. In that year it was discovered by N. B. Ward, Esq., and others, in the Island of Jersey. It was growing on moist banks having a southern aspect, where Marchantia flourishes. Mr. Ward found it in various localities, besides near St. Aubyn's and St. Lawrence. It is not unlikely to be discovered at the back of the Isle of Wight. Mr. J. Reeve informs us that the Gymnogramma leptophylla is well worth cultivating ; and although considered quite hardy, will thrive best either in the greenhouse (which seems to suit it as well as any placej, stove, or Wardian case. If cultivated in the open air, a sheltered situation should be chosen sheltered from C'jld, cutting winds, as well as from the burning rays of the sun, both of which will prove very injurious, if not fatal, to its slender fronds. A warm, shady nook, in a rockery, will, therefore, be the best situation for it In this situation, a free, open compost, of equal parts leaf- mould and peat, with an addition of sand, will grow it well. It must have a moderate supply of water over- head during the season of growth; but such watering must be withheld as the autumn approaches. During the winter months it will require no water, but must have a slight protection if it remains in the rockery out- GYMNOGRAMMA LEPTOPHYLLA. 129 of-doors. It may be taken up and potted in the autumn, and placed in the greenhouse for the winter. If gown as a pot-plant for the greenhouse, an addition to the before-mentioned compost of one-fourth loam, with a small quantity of sphagnum, will be preferred, with a good drainage. Frequent syringing, or sprinkling with water, will be required, and still more so if grown in a stove. If grown in a Wardian case, the same compost as for pot culture will be suitable for it, and to be placed near the bottom of the case. This is one amongst many other Ferns that is suitable for growing under a glass shade or bell-glass by itself, looking very neat, and can be kept in a small room, not capable of accommodating a large case. It may be increased by division, or by filling a pot with small lumps of peat and freestone, and sprinkling the surface with the fructification of the Fern when just ripe. Keep the pot in a moist and warm place until the seedlings are up and large enough to finger, when they may be potted into small pots in little lumps, with the growing plants upon them. They must still be placed iu a close, shady situation until large enough to plant out finally. 130 HYMENOPHYLLUM TUNBRIDGENSE. HYMENOPHY'LLUM TUNBKIDGE'NSE. THIS is popularly called " The Tunbridge Fern" but by English herbalists " The Filmy-leaved Fern." It was separated from Trichomanes by the late Sir J. E. Smith, who erected it into a genus, the striking characteristic of which is pointed out by the name derived from hymen, a membrane, and phyllon, a leaf. The root is wiry, long, slender, smooth, and black, creeping extensively upon, rather than within the soil, and producing such numerous fibres as to form upon it a kind of turf. Fronds solitary, but numerous, rising at intervals along the main roots, erect, from one to three inches high, smooth, deep green, filmy, semi-transparent, curling up as they become dry ; leafleted two-thirds of their length ; leaflets alternate, pointing upwards, variously lobed ; the lobes narrow and blunt, chiefly on the upper side of the leaflet, and their edges toothed. The fructification is cup-form, nearly stalkless, at the end of a vein, and occupying the place of the lobe nearest the main stalk on the edge of a leaflet ; the cover is formed by two slightly convex round leafits, equally toothed, and folding over each other. This Fern is not uncommon in rocky and moun- tainous parts of Great Britain, and is there found among moss in moist, shady places. It is very plentiful on various rocks near Tunbridge Wells ; in Devonshire, on rocks at Wistman's Wood, Beckley Fall, Dunsford Bridge, and other places ; in Yorkshire, rarely at Green- HYMENOPHY'LLUM TUNBRIDQE'NSE. HYMENOPHYLLUM TUNBRIDGENSE. 133 field, near Saddleworth, and near Halifax. In Wales, near Cader Idris and Dolgelly. In Ireland, abundantly near the Upper Lake at Killarney, and in the county of Wicklow, at Powerscourt Waterfall, Glencree, &c. Mr. Lightfoot says it occurs frequently in Scotland. We have given an instance of the life-retentive power of this Fern, when mentioning the similar power possessed by the Celerach officinarum. This Fern was discovered by Mr. Dare, a botanist of the seventeenth century, and was first mentioned by Petiver in his Musei Petiverani centuria prima, pub- lished in 1695. Mr. Petiver there calls it Darea Tun- bridgensis minor, thus commemorating the finder and the place where it was found. In the second edition of Ray's Synopsis methodica stirpium Britannicarum, pub- lished in 1696, it is stated that " this Fern was first shown to Mr. Bay by Mr. Newton, who, in company with Mr. Lawson, found it on Buzzard rough Cragg, near Wrenose, Westmoreland, among the moss. Dr. Richardson met with it upon moist rocks in Wales, and near Settle, in Yorkshire. It grows on the left hand as soon as you enter the mountains to go to the old castle, near Lhanberis. It was found also plentifully by Mr. Rand, in company with Mr. Sherard, among the pebbles at Cockbush, six or seven miles from Chi- chester, on the coast of Sussex." The Hymenopliyllum Tunbridgense is one of the smallest and most interesting of all the British Ferns, and al- though we meet with it in its native state, spreading over and flowering interestingly upon the exposed sur- 134 HYMENOPHYLLUM TUNBEIDGENSE. face of rocks and stone open to the action of all kinds of weather, still, when we attempt to cultivate it, we cannot succeed, unless means are taken to confine a close, moist atmosphere about its little delicate fronds. It prefers being kept continually damp and warm, which renders it a most valuable acquisition to the Wardian case, where it may be grown separately, as also under a plain bell-glass, or may be mixed with others, which likewise prefer a similar situation ; but whichever may be chosen for its cultivation, rather more care will be necessary in arranging it than will be required for most other Ferns. The situation it generally chooses for its habitat will be found to be nearly or quite free from all vegetable moulds, and which may be quite dispensed with in pot or artificial culture. Although we have seen it grown very well in equal parts peat and silver- sand, yet we have always found it thrive best under the following treatment. If to be grown as a pot plant, procure as many shallow pots or deep pans as may be required (from eight to twelve inches wide will be as convenient a size as any, and will grow a nice mass), fill the pot or pan to within an inch-and-a-half to two inches of the rim with small crocks, upon this place half-an-inch of white moss (sphagnum), which press down tight ; the pot is then to be filled quite full with powdered sandstone, which is also to be pressed down very firm ; upon this a little silver sand is to be sprinkled, then, turn the Fern root upwards, damp the roots, and sprinkle a little sand upon or between them ; after that turn the whole over upon HYMENOPHYLLUM TUNBRIDGENSE. 135 the surface prepared for its reception, sprinkle a little more dry sand over the surface, press it all down to- gether, give it a good watering, and leave it to settle. This is when the Fern is procured in cakes (which may be found several yards square), just like a sheet of wad- ding. If only a few small pieces can be got, then they must be very carefully spread over the same prepared surface, and imbedded in the sand, pressed down and watered as before. When this is done, a bell-glass must be placed over the whole, so as to fit just within the rim of the pot, and the pot to stand in another pan of water, so that two-thirds of the depth of crocks at the bottom of the pot may be immersed in water; but the level of the water must he below the bottom of the moss. 136 HYilEXOPHYLLUM WILSOXI. HYMENOPHY'LLUM WILSO'NI. THIS owes its specific name to being first distinguished from Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense by Mr. W. Wilson. It is called H. unilaterdle by some botanists, in allusion to the lobes of the leaflets being on one side. We believe it to be the variety of H. Tunbridgense described by Bolton as having its " fructification on naked fruit- stalks," and which he found on rocks under Dolbadern Castle, near the lake of Llanberris, and on the rock called Foal-foot, on Ingleborough, in Yorkshire. Root thread-like, brown, slightly scaly, creeping, and producing a few fibrous rootlets. Fronds from one to three inches high ; stalk stiff, smooth, round, winged at the top. Leaflets clothe two-thirds of the stalk, dark green, alternate, bent-back, lobes curved downwards, and spreading horizontally rather than vertically as they do in H. Tunbridgense; lobes oblong-oval, sharply toothed, and on the upper side of the leaflet only. Fructification is placed as in H. Tunbridgense, but unlike that is stalked ; its outer case (involucre) is egg-shaped, with swollen convex valves meeting at their edges. The fructification curves forward in a direction opposite to that in which the lobes of the leaf- lets are curved. In England it has been found near the waterfall above Ambleside ; at Black Bocks of Great End, in the Scawfell Range, and at Scale Force near Buttermere ; and at Greenfield near Saddleworth, and near Silverdale. HYMENOPHY'LLUM WILSO'NI. HYMENOPHYLLUM WILSONI. 139 In Wales on Snowdou, near Llanberris Pass, and on the adjacent mountains, especially near Twll Du, and on high rocks about Nant Pbrancon, and on rocks near the Rhydol at a plank over a gulf of the river Pont Bren. In Scotland at Finlarig Burn, near Killin, Perthshire, and in Argyleshire. In Ireland at Killaruey, Shannafolia Mountains, Kerry Mountains, and Con- naraara. (Francis's British Ferns.) Mr. Reeve, writing to us of its culture, says, " The Hymenorhyllum Wilsoni is very much like the Tun hridgense, but of larger growth and stronger habit. Each of the species thrives remarkably well under the treatment directed for the latter ; but H. Wilsoni is not adapted for artificial rockwork, as a glass of any kind continually kept upon such a structure looks very unnatural : and as it could not be cultivated thereon with any certain success without a glass covering of some kind, it had better be withheld from rockwork altogether. Each of the species thrives remarkably well in the stove or greenhouse, pit or close frame ; but whichever situation may be chosen, the plants must be protected from sunshine. They are readily increased by division, by carefully arranging the small pieces on the surface of the compost directed for H. Tunbridgenss. By keeping the whole close, moist, and warm for a short time, the plants will very soon establish themselves." 140 L.A.STRJEA CEISTATA. 4/LASTILE'A CETSTA'TA. Tins Fern has been called by botanists Polypodium cristatum and calypteris, Polystichum cristatum, Lo- phodium callipteris, and Aspidium cristatum. In English it is called the Crested Fern, Crested Polypody, and Crested Shield Fern Boot tufted, stout, and far-branching, producing fronds from the ends of each root-branch. Fronds yellowish-gi'een, several, and in favourable situations more than two feet high ; very erect, and the general outline of the frond line-like, the leaflets very gradually decreasing in length. The leaflets clothe rather more than one half of the stem, the lower half of the stem having upon it many scattered, brown, blunt scales, green in front, and channelled, but purple below. The lower leaflets are usually opposite, but the upper leaflets are alternate. They are very deeply and regularly lobed, rather than leafited ; the lobes are broad, blunt, sugar- loaf shaped, and sharply-toothed round their edge, the teeth ending in short bristles. The side veins in each lobe are much branched, and from the base of each main branch rises the vein, at the end of which is the fructification ; and its masses, somewhat kidney-shaped, are in two rows, one on each side the mid veiu, at a distance equal from that and the edge of the lobe. The cover (indusium) of each mass is swollen, permanent, and pale lead-coloured. The masses usually run together by the time the spores are ripe. IASTBJE'A. CBISTA'T*. LASTED A CKISTATA. 143 The spores are at first black, but they become rusty as they ripen. In very luxuriant specimens, and in specimens grow- ing in very shaded situations, this Fern attains a height of even three feet, and the leaflets are wider apart. This is one of our rarest Ferns. It has been found on boggy heaths, among coarse grass, at the Lows, on Holt Heath ; at Fritton, near Yarmouth, in Suffolk, and Sur- lingham Road, near Norwich, in Norfolk ; among Alder bushes, at Westleton, and at Bexley, near Ipswich, in Suffolk ; on Oxton Bogs, in Nottinghamshire ; in Huntingdonshire ; near Madeley, in Staffordshire ; and o Wybunbury Bog, in Cheshire. In Ireland it has been discovered on the estate of Lord Gough, at Rathro- nan, near Clonmel. We believe this to be Dr. Johnson's Filix mas ramosa pinnulis dentatis. He says, it then (1633) grew " plen- tifully in the boggy, shadowy moors near Durnford Abbey, in Sussex, and also on the moist, shadowy rocks by Maple-durham, near Petersfield, in Hampshire ; and I have found it often on the dead, putrefied bodies and stems of old, rotten Oaks, in the moors. Near the old plants I have observed very many small, young plants growing, which came by the falling of the seed from their dusty scales ; for I believe all herbs have seeds in themselves to produce their kinds. Gen. i. 11 and 12." (Gerarde's Herbal, ed. by Johnson, 1129.) Ray, in his Historia Plantarum, also says, that Mr. Goodyer had found it not only in Sussex, but in many other places in England. 144 LASTED A CRISTATA. Mr. W. Reeve gives us the following directions lor its cultivation : "The Lastraa cristata is a very useful plant for adorning the moist, shady parts of the rockery and shrubbery, as well as for growing in pots for a collection of hardy Ferns ; but it is not so beautiful as some other species. When once established, it very shortly becomes free in its growth and low in appearance. Those who wish to grow it as a pot -plant must drain well the pot, and give the plants a compost of loam and peat (fibry), equal parts, with a free admixture of silver sand ; and plenty of room will be required as the plant in- creases in size. It prefers being grown in a damp, shady situation, and a cool rather than a hot situa- tion. When grown in a ligh temperature, the un- folding fronds become long and weak, and it loses its beauty, and oftentimes damps quite off, or dwindles away. " It is well adapted for damp, shady places, the shaded part of a rockery included, where it will grow very wel' in a compost of loam and peat, with a little grit (fine stones or small crocks) mixed with it ; and both in this, and also under pot-culture, it will require a moderate supply of water and frequent syringing. " It may be increased by sowing the ripe fructification (which will be in that state by the latter end of summer) in shallow pans filled with charcoal, lumps of peat, sandstone, and loam, and placed in a damp pit,, and shaded closely from sunshine, and the seedlings to be pricked off in the same manner as directed for former LASTBJEA CRISTATA. 145 genera always keeping the young plants damp and well shaded, and protected in winter and during the summer months. All the plants in pots should he plunged, or other means taken to keep the roots con- stantly cool and moist." LASTKJ3A DILATATA. LASTED 'A MLATA'TA. J4/ THERE has been much "learned dust" raised relative to this Fern, its alleged varieties, and its want of dis- tinct specific characters when compared with Lastrtea spinulosa. The doubts and " dust" are occasioned, we think, by the admitted fact that L. dilatata varies very much in form and stature in accordance with the situa tion where it grows. It has been called by botanists Aspidium dilatatum and A. spinulosum ; Lastrcea multi- flora; Lophodium multiflorum ; P oly podium aristatum. P. cristatum, and P. dilatatum ; and Polystiehum multi- florum. In English it is known as Broad Sharp-too Hied Shield Fern; Broad Prickly-toothed Buckler Fern, Broad Prickly Fern; Great Shield Fern; and Dilated Shield Fern. Root black, tufted, not at all creeping, but large, erect, and almost entitled to be described as tuberous. Fronds varying in size fro n a few inches to two feet, an^in very favourable situations twice that heighth ; they rise from the root-stock in a circular cluster, and beai some resemblance to the capital of a Corinthian column They are erect, broad, spreading, light green, and spear- head shaped in their general outline ; their leaflets have a similar form, and are so deep cut, or pinnatifid, into long, olunt, parallel, deeply-toothed, sharp-pointed segments, that they seem doubly leafited ; indeed, the lower pair are so. The stem is slender, slightly scaly throughout its length, but mostly so where there are no LASTU.S'A DILATA'TA. LASTR/EA DILATATA. 145) leaflets; the stalks of the leaflets, also, are slightly scaly. The leaflets are rather alternate than opposite, and the leafits are, for the most part, also alternate. Fructification numerous, and nearer the midrib than the edge of each leaflet ; at first swollen and kidney- shaped, hut the cover (indusium), when burst, becomes circular, with a deep cut in its lower side. We have observed how much this Fern varies in form, and the best particulars relative to this character- istic are the following by Mr. Francis: " If it grow in a situation which is wet in the spring and dried up in the summer, as on the margin of a pond, it will become var. /3, very dark, large, and quite drooping. Con- tinued wet will elongate the leaf and separate the pinnae and pinnules as in var. 7. A young plant is only twice pinnate and flat. A dry and rocky, or a confined situation will render the leaf small and less divided, the pinnules blunt, deflexed, and drooping : thus starved it becomes the Aspidium dumetorum of Smith (var. 5). I know not the nature of the habitats in which the recurved var. (e) of Bree grows. [It is said to grow both in dry and wet shady places, preferring moisture. But all the recorded localities are in damp climates. ED.] The varieties recurvum and dumetorum are, I believe, not altered by cultivation, and Sir J. E. Smith implies, in his description of the latter, that its spores produce the same variety. a (dilatatum). Frond sub-tripinnate, triangular, ovate. Pinnules petioled. j8 ( ). Frond tripinnate, deflexed, triangular. Pinnules convex. 7 ( ). Frond tripinnate, triangular, elongated. Pinnules somewhat decurrent, and dis- tant from each other. 150 LASTB^IA DILATATA. S (dumetorum). Frond small, triangular, drooping. Pin- nules blunt. t (recurvum, Bree). Frond small. Pinnules concave, and dark green, Newm. p. 61. Lastrsea Fcenisecii, Sab. Lophodium Foanisecii Newm. 1854." We only differ from Mr. Francis in considering that L. Fcenisecii is a distinct species, and not merely a varied form of L. dilatata. It is found in shaded, watery, sandy soils, or in moist, rocky woods, and is so common that no locality need be specified. Mr. W. Reeve observes to us that this, also, is one of those Ferns which are valuable for the adorning of the rockery or shrubbery, and will be found to thrive where the Lastreea cristata will not, being not so impatient of sunshine; not but that it will attain a greater size and more beauty, when grown in the shade, than when grown in a full exposure to light. It is, therefore, well adapted to the shaded side or base of the rockery; and as it will, when once established in a favourable situation, attain a heighth of three or four feet, forethought will be required in planting, so that it may not smother the smaller species. It prefers a moist situation for its abode, but will grow remarkably well upon an elevated position that is well shaded. If grown as a pot-plant, it must be allowed a moderate space for its roots; and with a compost of loam, peat, and leaf- mould, with a free admixture of silver sand and good drainage, not being potted too firmly, and afterwards, a LASTR,EA DILATATA. 151 moderate degree of shade and H good supply of water being given both at the root and over-head, it will be found to have had its wishes met. If grown upon the rockery or in the shrubbery, it will prefer more loam and less leaf-mould; and if placed in an exposed situa- tion, it must be shaded until established, when it may be gradually exposed to meet all weathers. It will not require any protection in winter, unless grown in pots, or upon very exposed parts of the rockery, where a slight protection will be preferable. It is not suitable at all for the Wardian Case, nor for in door culture, as the confinement makes it weak. The propagation may be pursued in a similar way to that mentioned for Las trail crittata. 152 LAVi'R/EA FILIX.-MA8. "LASTILE'A FI'LIX-MAS. THIS has been called by various botanists a Polypodium, an Aspidium, a Polystichum, and a Dryopteris; but in every instance they adopted the specific name, filix-mas, because it is the acknowledged " Male Fern " of our most ancient herbalists. Male Fern is its most generally admitted English name; but it has also been called Male Polypody, Male Shield Fern, and Common Buckler Fern. Root black, tufted, scaly, large, with numerous dark brown, deeply - penetrating rootlets. Fronds several, rising in a circle, erect, from two to four feet high. The general outline would be spear-head shaped, if the lowest pair of leaflets were not much shorter than those next above them, rendering the form more ovate, but pointed. Less than a fifth of the stem is without leaflets, but this unleafleted portion is covered with a profusion of chaffy scales, which extend, indeed, over the entire stalk and mid-ribs. Leaflets alternate, very equal in width until near their end, when they rapidly taper to a point. Leajits oblong, blunt, roundish-toothed, numerous, crowded, stalkless, for the most part distinct, but sometimes rather united at the base , both surfaces smooth, but there is an indent on the upper surface, over the place where is each mass of fructification. Fructification in circular masses, tawny, ranged closely in short rows near each side of the lower half of the mid-rib of each leafit ; cover (indusium) kidney-shaped, LASTR^.'A PI'LIX-MAS. LASTR^A FIL.IX-MAS. 155 durable, scolloped, swollen, with a cleft terminating in the centre. Spores numerous, shining brown, prominent, round, and just beyond the edge of the cover. Three varieties of this Fern occur, and have been thus well particularised by Mr. Charles Johnson : " 1. incisa. Frond robust, broadly lanceolate ; pinnae distant ; pinnules distinct, elongate, narrow, acuminate, deeply incised, the lobes serrated. Sori extending nearly the entire length of the pinnules. Lastrea Filix-mas, /8. incisa, Moore, Handbook Brit. Ffrns, 50. Aspidium Filix- mas, 0. erosum, Hooker and Aniott. Dryopteris affinis, Newman, Hist. Brit. Ferns, 187. " 2. abbrKvisita. Frond small, lanceolate, pinnate. Sori confined to the base of contracted or obsolete pinnules, forming a linear series on each side of the mid- vein of the pinnae. Lastrea Filix-mas, 0. abbreviatn, Babington. Poly- stichum abbreviatum, De Candollv. " 3. Borreri. Frond narrow lanceolate. Rachis clothed with ruddy-golden scales and hairs. Sori few, large, two or three pairs at the base of each pinnule. Dryopteris Filix- mas, var. Borreri, Newman, Hist. Brit. Ferns, 189. " Of these, the variety incita is far from uncommon ; abbreviata lias been found on Ingleborough, Yorkshire, on the basaltic cliffs of Teesdale, and in the Peak district, Derbyshire, everywhere apparently in dry localities ; Borreri seems to be common, though first observed by Mr. Borrer, in Devonshire, as a variety ' with more copious and brighter- coloured scales on the rachis, and with a bright golden- yellow tinge on the whole frond.' Brit. Flora. " Abbreviata retains its distinguishing features in all soils and under different treatment in cultivation, and may perhaps eventually prove a separate species." ( Sowerby's Ferns. ) This is too common a Fern to require the places 156 LASTRJ3A FIL1X-MAS. where it is found to bo particularised ; indeed, the difficulty would be to find any wide-extended district where it could not be discovered. Mr. W. Reeve observes upon this Fern, that it is & most desirable plant for furnishing the rockery and vacancies and corners in the shrubbery, and other similar places. A few hints may not be out of place for its culture. It is one of the finest growing of the British species, and one that will make a noble object when once established. The treatment it requires is merely a moderate space for its roots, in a compost of sandy loam three parts, with one part of leaf-mould, and a free supply of water during its growing season. This compost will suit it for either pot culture or for culti- vating it in the open air. When growing in pots, these had better be plunged in some loose substance during the winter months. It may be increased very freely from seeds, which will be in a perfect state soon after Midsummer. Like many other Ferns, this will look much nobler when planted out in the spring. If planted in mass upon an irregular surface, say from six to eight strong plants in a clump, with a few large white flints or pieces of rock laid in between and about them, it will add to the appearance. Although this Fern will stand a little sun, yet it flourishes much better in the shade. Although some medical practitioners have no faith in this Fern as a destroyer of worms in the human in- testines, yet other authorities maintain that it is the most powerful medicine we possess for that purpose, LASTR.EA FILIX-MAS. 157 and it was so esteemed by some of the most ancient physicians. " Dr. Peschier, of Geneva, found that sulphuric ether extracted the active principle of the Fern. The solution, left for some time at rest, yielded a mamellated substance, which, on being freed by pressure from the liquid with which it was impregnated, was found to be an adipocire. The liquid was, in consequence of its separation, thinner, had a greenish-brown colour, a disagreeable taste without being acrid, a nauseous smell, and reddened litmus paper. By further analysis the whole products of the Fern are, adipocire, a brown resin, an aromatic volatile oil, an aromatic virose fixed oil, a green colouring principle, a reddish-brown principle, extractive, muriate of potash, and acetic acid. " The root was used as an anthelmintic in the days of Dioscorides. It gradually became neglected, but its use was again revived, at different times, by Madame Nufier, Ferrenschwand, and others, who frequently succeeded in killing and expelling the tape worm by the exhibition of secret remedies, of which the Fern powder was the prin- cipal ingredient. To kill a tcenia, about three drachms of the powder of Fern are required. Dr. Peschier found that this quantity yielded three drops of oil, or twenty-four grains. This may be made into pills, or mixed up in the form of an emulsion ; and as it is necessary to be given when the stomach is as empty as possible, one half may be given at night, and the other half in the morning, on the empty stomach. It is immaterial whether a purgative be given with it or not. By this method Dr. Peschier assures us, that he had succeeded in 150 cases of tenia. Others have also given information ; and M. Studer expelled, in one case, Tricocephalus dispar of Bremser, which resists all other known anthelmintics." (Duncan's Edinburgh Dis- pensatory.} 158 LA8TR.EA FIL1X-MAS. The above is not the only use to which this Fern is applied, for the Siberians are fond of the flavour which it imparts to ale, and its ashes contain so much potash as to be especially valuable to the soap and glass- maker. In Norway the young fronds, before they uncurl, are boiled and eaten like Asparagus, and in hard winters the dried fronds are there soaked in hot water and given as fodder to cattle. The superstitions of old connected with this Fern very widely prevailed, and have been rendered classical by Shakspeare and other writers. " This Ferae," says Lyte in his Herbal, published in 1578, "beareth neither flowers nor seede, except we shal take for seede the blacke spottes growing on the backside of the leaves, the whiche some do gather, thinking to work wonders, but to say the trueth, it is nothing els but trumperie and superstition." Bauhin, writing in 1650, in his His- toria Plantarum, says, " These black spots fall about the festival of St. John (June 25), and are collected by certain women and sold as Fern-seed. I will not relate the follies and superstitions practised with this seed." " ' Fern-seed,' says Grose, ' is looked on as having great magical powers, and must be gathered on Midsummer Eve. A person who went to gather it reported that the spirits whisked by his ears, and sometimes struck his hat and other parts of his body; and, at length, when he thought he had got a good quantity of it, and secured it in papers and a box, when he came home he found both empty.' [Bovet, in his Pandsemonium, 1684, gives a narrative of some ladies who say, ' We had been told divers times that if we lasted on Midsummer Eve, and then at 12 o'clock at night laid a cloth LASTR.EA FILIX-MAS. l. r )9 on the table with bread and cheese, and a cup of the best beer, setting ourselves down as if we were going to eat, and leaving the door of the room open, we should see the person whom we should afterwards marry come into the room and drink to us.'] Torreblanca, in his Dtemonologia, 1623, p. 150, suspects those persons of witchcraft who gather Fern-seed on this night : ' Vel si reperiantur in nocte S. Joannis colligendo grana herbae Frelicis, vulgo Helecho, qua Magi ad maleficia sua utuntur.' " A respectable countryman at Heston, in Middlesex, in- formed me in June, 1793, that, when he was a young man, he was often present at the ceremony of catching the Fern- seed at midnight on the eve of St. John Baptist. The attempt, he said, was often unsuccessful, for the seed was to fall into the plate of its own accord, and that too without shaking the plant. " Dr. Kowe, of Launceston, informed me, Oct. 17th, 1790, of some rites with Fern-seed which were still observed at that place. 'Fern,' says Gerard, 'is one of those plants which have their seed on the back of the leaf, so small as to escape the sight. Those who perceived that Fern was propagated by semination, and yet could never see the seed, were much at a loss for a solution of the difficulty ; and, as wonder always endeavours to augment itself, they ascribed to Fern-seed many strange properties, some of which the rustick virgins have not yet forgotten or exploded.' This circumstance relative to Fern-seed is alluded to in Beaumont and Fletcher's Fair Maid of the Inn : ' Had you Gyges" ring ? Or the herb that gives Invisibility ? ' " Again, in Ben Jonsou's New Inn : ' I had No medicine, sir, to go invisible, No Fern -seed in my pocket.'* [" Gather Fearne-seed on Midsomer Eve, and weare it about the continually. AUo on Midsomer Day take the herb Milfuile roote before 160 LASTK^A FILI L-MAS. " Again, in Philemon Holland's Translation of Pliny, book xxvii. ch. 9 : ' Of Feme be two kinds, and they beare neither floure nor seed.' The ancients, who often paid more attention to received opinions than to the evidence of their senses, believed that Fern bore no seed. Our ancestors imagined that this plant produced seed which was invisible. Hence, from an extraordinary mode of reasoning, founded on the fantastic doctrine of signatures, they concluded that they who possessed the secret of wearing this seed about them would become invisible. This superstition Shak- speare's good sense taught him to ridicule. It was also supposed to seed in the course of a single night, and is called, in Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, 1613, ' The wond'rous one-night-seeding Feme.' " Absurd as these notions are, they were not wholly ex- ploded in tlie time of Addison. He laughs at a doctor who was arrived at the knowledge of the green and red dragon, and had discovered the female Fern-seed." ( Tattler, No. 240. Brand's Popular Antiquities.) Not only were these superstitions not exploded in the time of Addison, but they linger still in some of the rustic corners of our land. Thus Mr. Edwin Lees, in his recent work, " Pictures of Nature in the Silurian Kegion round Malvern Hills," says : " The country-people in Worcestershire, as my antiquarian friend Mr. Jabez Allies informs me, still traditionally keep up the old belief in the mystic powers of the ' Fern-seed,' which was supposed to make the gatherer ' walk invisible.' The saying is, that the Fern blooms and seeds only at twelve o'clock on Midsummer night; and to catch the seed sun-rising, and before you take it out of the ground say these word* following, &c., and gather the Fern-seed on Midsomer Eve betweene 11 and 12 at noone and at night." MS. temp. Eliz.] LASTRJEA PILIX-MAS. 161 twelve pewter-plates must be taken. The wondrous seed, it is affirmed, will pass through eleven of the plates, and rest only upon the twelfth ! Such an idea may now be smiled at; but the philosophers of a past age believed something very similar, and even taught that demons watched to convey away the Fern-seed as it fell, ere any one could possess themselves of it. To ' walk invisible ' was said, and at one time believed, to result from possessing the Fern-seed." 162 LASTR^A FOENISKCII. LASTILE'A FCENISE'CII. THE specific name, from the Latin fcenum, hay, refers to the smell emitted by this plant, but that smell differs so little from the smell of other species that we agree with Mr. Charles Johnson in wishing that the specific name of recurvum, given it by some botanists, had been more generally preferred, for recurvum, curled-back, well points out the peculiarly crisped appearance of this Fern. It has been called Aspidium dilatatum var. concavum ; Aspidium recurvum; Aspidium spinulosum, var.; and Lophodium fcenisecii. In English it is the Hay-scented Buckler Fern, and Eecurved Prickly-toothed Fern. Root large and tufted, rootlets numerous. The Fronds rise from the tuft in a circle ; they are bright pale green, with the leaflets very much curled, or crisped upward; rendering their upper surface concave. The stem curves downward gracefully, the lower liali being without leaflets, but thickly clothed with pale, semi-transparent scales; these scales are long, narrow, and usually jagged. The general outline of the leaCeted portion is a long triangle. The leaflets in full-grown plants are constantly three-leafited (tripinnate) at the lower part of the frond, and of the lower leaflets generally ; the leafits and lobes of the upper parts of the leaflets are all finely toothed, each tooth ending in a short spine, giving it a crisped, irregular, yet graceful appearance, which, combined with the concave form of the leaflets, enables it at once to be identified. On the under LASTltSl'A. FCENISEC'II. LASTR.EA FfENTSKCII. 16J surface of the leaflets are numerous stalkless glands, producing the secretion which gives forth the hay-like smell to which we have already alluded. The fructifi- cation is regularly scattered over the under surface of each leaflet, each mass being covered with a roundish kidney-shaped membrane (indusium), having a jagged edge, and sometimes having on the edge a few of the glands just noticed. This Fern is not generally found in the British Islands, but it occurs abundantly on the western side of England, as in Cornwall aud Devon, and less plentifully in Somersetshire, Sussex, and Cumberland ; at Ripon, Settle, and Scarborough, in Yorkshire, and in North Lancashire. In Wales, in Anglesea, Glamorganshire, and Merionethshire. In Scotland it is found in the East and West Highlands, and in the Northern and Western Islands. It occurs sometimes in dryish situations, but is usually found in moist, sheltered, woody places, and on the banks beneath hedges. We think that this Fern was first discovered and particularised by Dr. Johnson, the editor of the second edition of " Gerarde's Herbal," and that in that work (page 1130) he describes it as "the Male Fern not branched ; with narrow, separated, deeply - toothed leafits " (Filix mas non ramosa pinnulis angustis, raris, profunde dentatis). Be this as it may, his namesake, Mr. Charles Johnson, says, " In 1821, I first noticed it in the vicinity of Dolgelly, and again in the Vale of Festiniog (in Merionethshire and Glamorganshire), and 166 LASTR^A F(EN'ISECII. though marking its peculiarity, supposed it, iu my in- experience, to be a form of Aspidium dilatatum ot Smith. It had not then received name or notice among recent botanists, though, apparently, referred to both by Ray and Plukenet ; nor was my attention directed to its very distinct character, even as a variety, until, in 1831, the Rev. W. T. Bree described it in the ' Magazine of Natural History,' under the name of recurvum, since which time opinion has been divided respecting its claim to rank as a species." (Sowerby's British Ferns.) Mr. Reeve, writing to us relative to its cultivation, says : " Lastraea Fcenisecii is, perhaps, of all the Lastrceas, the most elegant in shape, and, producing as it does many distinct forms, is well worth cultivating. It is of such easy culture, that it should not be absent from any collection. It will, in the shade, unfold its fronds to the length of three feet, and produce them rather abundantly, making, together, a very noble object ; but in proportion as it is exposed to the sun, so it becomes less luxuriant in habit, and also less in the number of its fronds. It may be grown in almost any degree of shade, from the Fernery or shrubbery, excluded from the sun altogether, to a situation exposed to all its rays; but, as I have said, much beauty will be lost ac- cording to the degree of exposure to light which it has to endure. It may be grown in sandy loam, with a little leaf-mould ; or, in default of leaf-mould, in most cases, a few very rotten sticks broken into small pieces will form a very good substitute. The fructification (which will be in a ripe state towards the end of the summer) may be employed for its propagation, proceeding in the same way as directed for other species. The plants, if grown in pots, will require to be plunged in winter." LASTIUE'A OREO'PTBRIS. LASTILE'A OREO'PTERIS. THIS has been called by botanists Aspidium odoriferum, A. oreopteris, Hemestheum montanum, Lastraa montana, Polypodium fragrans, P. oreopteris, P. tfuilypteris, P. montanum, and Polystiehum montanum. In English it is known as the Mountain Fern, Heath Fern, Mountain Buckler Fern, Heath Shield Fern, and Heath Polypody. The uniform reference in these names to " Mountain " and " Heath " indicates the places which it frequents. Root, large, black, scaly, and tufted ; with numerous stout, matted rootlets. Fronds several, growing iu a circle, between two and three feet high, erect, spear- head shaped in general outline. Stem covered with fine hairs on the upper part, and slightly with pale brown scales at the bottom; pale green and deeply chennelled in front. Leaflets extending nearly to the bottom of the stalk, almost opposite, stalkless, deeply lobed, so as nearly to form leafits ; lobes bluntly pointed, smooth, except the midrib, which is downy. Underside sprinkled with shining, yellowish, resinous globules, yielding a grateful scent. Fructification in a row near the edge of each lobe, and when ripe the round masses nearly run together, forming a brown beaded line close to the edge. The cover (indusium) of each mass is thin, white, kidney-shaped, but almost circular, and soon shrivelling up. It is usually found upon mountain heaths, but it has been found also in shady woods, where the soil is moist. 170 LASTILEA OHEOl'TKRIS. In England it lias been gatliered at Old Foot's Well. Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire ; near Chapel Weardale and Darlington, Durham; at Cawsey Dean, near New- castle; at Keswick and near Lodore Waterfall, in Cum- berland; by the Tees; near Richmond, and in woods at Castle Howard, in Yorkshire ; on Coleshill Heath and Corley, in Warwickshire ; near Warrington ; ou Dethick Moor and near Hi ley, in Derbyshire ; in the Isle of Man; on Dalliugton Heath, near Northamp- ton; on the north side of Shotover Hill, in Oxford- shire ; on Oxtou and Eddiugley Bogs, in Nottingham- shire, and at Hartswell, near Farnsfield ; at Conham and Leigh Woods, near Bristol, in Somersetshire; at.Bradwell, iu Suffolk; in Sussex; on Bailey's Hill, between Brasted and Tunbridge, in Kent , and near Southampton. In Scotland, at Glen Isla, in Forfarshire ; in Suther- laudshire ; on the banks of Loch Tay ; in Aberdeen- shire ; and at the foot of Craig Chailleach. In Wales, near Wrexham, in Denbighshire ; at Llaii- berris and Nant Gwynedd, in Caernarvonshire. In Ireland, in Powerscourt Deer Park, and Waterfall, M angerton Mountain ; Lough Corril, in Galway ; and elsewhere. This very beautiful and easily distinguished Fern is first mentioned by Ray as a native of this country. He notices it in the Appendix to the second edition of his Synopsis Metkodica Stirpium Britannicarum as " a variety of the common Male Fern observed by Petiver on Duns- more Heath, near Rugby, in the county of Warwick ;" LASTR^IA OKEOI'TERIS. 171 and then proceeds to describe it, and to state that it had been mentioned by Phikenet. Mr. Reeve observes, in a letter with which he has favoured us, that this is a very elegant and useful Fern for growing in pots, or on rocks and other scenery, when successfully cultivated. Although rather shy of being removed, yet, with a little care, it may be successfully treated. We find with this, as with many other plants or Ferns that are rather impatient of moisture remain- ing about their roots, that they do not like to have the roots disturbed ; therefore those who would like to culti- vate this Fern should obtain it either in a youug state from its native place, or a well-established plant in a pot from a nurseryman, to be planted or potted in a compost of two-thirds fibry peat and one of leaf-mould smd sandy loam in equal parts, with a free admixture of silver sand. The pots must be carefully and well drained. Place one large crock or oyster-shell over the hole at the bottom of the pot; then place over this, according to the size of pot to be used, a quantity of small crocks, and above this place a little sphagnum, just sufficient to cover the crocks. The potting may then be carried out in the usual manner, pottiug rather firmly. Afterwards great care must be taken to see that the Fern does not have too much water, for it is very impatient of ex- cessive moisture. For the rockery or shrubbery it must also have a well-drained situation, or it will not succeed; and also a shady place will be required. The same compost will do for this as for pot-culture, and, whether in the rockery or in pots, a slight sprinkling with the 172 LASTE^A OREOPTERI8. syringe or very fine-rosed pot will be found preferable, during fine growing weather, to the application of water to the roots alone. It is well adapted for either the rockery or shrubbery, and would look much better if planted in masses in the shrubbery in the same manner as mentioned for former species. It may be propagated by division, although with some difficulty, but with more certainty from the mature fructification, which will be ripe by the end of the summer months, and which may be sown and treated in the same way as mentioned for other species. LASTR&'A. Bl'OIDA. LASTIl/EA RIGIDA. 175 / LASTRJL'A ET'GIDA. THIS has been called Aspidium rigidum, A.fragrans, and A.spinulosum, Lophodium rigidum, Polypodium rigidum, Potystichum rigidum, and P. strigosum. It is probable, also, that it has been confounded with the Polypodmm fragrans of Linnaeus. It is in English the Rigid Buckler Fern, Rigid Shield Fern, and Rigid Lastraea. Root thick, slowly-extending, tufted, with many long, wiry rootlets. Fronds numerous, in a tuft, varying, ac- cording to the situation, from half a foot to more than two feet in height. The stem of each frond is thick and stiff, or rigid, whence the specific name; its lower third is without leaflets, but thickly covered with reddish-brown, sharp-pointed, membranous scales ; these scales extend up the leafleted part. General outline of the leafleted portion a lengthened irregular triangle. Upper leaflets alternate, but lower ones nearly opposite ; their stalks much thickened where they join the stem; the leafits are oblong, blunt, variously but deeply lobed ; lobes with from two to five sharp teeth, but not ending in a spine, with the branch of a lateral vein passing into each tooth. Fructification, mostly at the upper part of the frond, is at the first fork of each lateral vein of the leant bearing it, and so forming a row on each side the mid vein ; running together (confluent) when ripe ; the cover (indusium) kidney-shaped, and attached to the lateral vein by a short stalk at the indentation of its kidney form, white at first, but afterwards leaden-coloured. This cover 176 LASTR.EA RIGIDA. is beaded round with stalked globular glands. Similar glands are scattered over the frond's whole surface, and they emitting a rather agreeable odour, have caused it sometimes to be called fraqrans, and, consequently, to be confounded with L. oreopteris. It is almost confined to the limestone mountains of the north of England, where it was first noticed as a British Fern by the Rev. Mr. Bree. He discovered it at Ingleborougb, in 1815. Since then it has been found atWhornside; at Settle ; at Arnside Knot, near Silver- dale, in Westmoreland ; and on White Scars, above Ingleborough. A single plant was found near Bath, and another at Louth, in Ireland, but in such situations as to justify the opinion that they were introductions. Mr. W. Reeve tells us that this Fern is a free-growing species under cultivation, and is a very elegant ornament for the well-drained and shady parts of the rockery. It being found growing wild generally upon chalky soils, and oftentimes upon elevated positions, points out it is well adapted by its native habit for planting on artificial rockwork. It may be grown, also, successfully in shrub- beries and wildernesses, where a thorough drainage can be procured, and also shade, in which it delights, although it will bear exposure, but the beauty of the plant is then lost. It will also succeed well under pot- culture, and to thrive it should have a well-drained soil, composed of turfy peat two parts, and one part sand or limestone broken into small pieces, and a free admix- ture of silver sand; old mortar, broken small, forms a very good substitute for the third part. The same com- LASTK^IA BIGIDA. 177 post will suit it for either pot or rock culture; but whether cultivated in pots or upon rockwork, it must be so placed that, whilst freely supplied with water at the roots and over the foliage (which it will require during the growing season), all excess of water may soon drain away, so that the moisture should never become stag- nant about the roots. Although the present species often grows in situations where it is subject to a consi- derable degree of dryness and exposure to the sun, yet it may, under cultivation, be grown to a much finer state of development if kept moist and shaded during its growing period. Young plants are the best to start with. Proceed with potting and propagating in the same manner as directed for former species, the fructifi- cation being ripe by August or September. It may be grown in-doors, although, like most of the other Lastrceas, it usually becomes long and weak under confined treatment; but this may be checked if it can be supplied with abundance of fresh air. 178 LASTRvEA SPINULOSA. LASTILE'A SPINULO'SA. THIS is described by some botanists under the names of Aspidium spinulosum, Lastraa dentata var. linearis, L. spinosa, Lophodium sp'mosum, Polypodium cristatum, P. filix-fcemina var. spinosa, P. dentatum, P. spinosum, and P. spinulosum, and Polystichum spinosum. In English it is called the Narrow Prickly-toothed Fern, Prickly Shield Fern, Lesser Crested Polypody, and Prickly-toothed Shield Fern. This species has been confounded with a variety of Lastraa dilatata by Sir J. E. Smith and others. Root rather creeping, and although spreading slowly, yet in old plants it reaches to a distance, and sends up numerous tufts of fronds. Fronds a delicate light green, varying from one to three feet high, very slightly lean- ing, having a long triangular general outline, and perfectly flat. The stem whitish, with a few black dots, through half its length without leaflets, and this un- leafleted part is beset with thin, semi-transparent, pale brown, oval scales, slightly pointed. Leaflets not crowded ; leafits numerously and deeply cut, spear-head shaped, all deeply toothed, each tooth ending in a sharp hooked point, and a branch of a lateral vein passing into each tooth. The lower leafits on each leaflet are often larger than their corresponding upper leafits. Fructification on the first inner branch of each lateral vein, forming a row of circular masses ou each side the mid-vein. The masses are small ; the cover of each SPINULO'SA. LASTR^EA SPJNULO8A. 11 dat, kidney-shaped, slightly waved on the edge, but never fringed with glands. In exposed situations the masses sometimes run together. The fructification is generally, but not always, upon the upper leaflets of the fioads only. It is found in marshy places, moist wooded ground, and wet hedgerows. In England it has been found in the Isle of Man ; near Ingleborough, Pottery Car at Doncaster, and Richmond, in Yorkshire; Woolston M >ss, in Lancashire; Newchurcb Bog, in Cheshire ; Titterstone Glee Hills, and Bomere Pool, in Shropshire ; in Warwickshire ; in Derbyshire; Dallington Heath, near Northampton ; in Norfolk; near the Windmill and the Spring-well on Wimbledon Common ; in Sussex ; at Tunbridge, in Kent; near Torquay, and in a wood near Dunsfbrd Bridge, in Devonshire. In Scotland at B rah an Castle, near Dingwall. We are not sure about other localities where it has been said to be found. Mr. Reeve observes to us, that although the Lastr&a spinulosa may, at first sight, be mistaken for L. dilatata, yet, when each of them is cultivated in one collection, there will be found a marked difference. Neither of the species should be absent from a collection, for although a similarity exists, both the distinctness and beauty of 6:ich will be very apparent when growing near to each other. This is a very fine and erect-growing species, and remarkably well adapted for the moist parts of the 182 LASTR^EA SPINULOSA. Fernery, rookery, or shady parts of the shrubbery, and from its bold, free habit, should be largely cultivated. It will bear a moderate degree of exposure, although, like most others of the genus, it prefers shade, attain- iug greater magnitude according to the degree of shade it is grown under ; but, whichever situation it may occupy, a good supply of water will be necessary. It is a Fern that will make itself at home under ordinary attention, and may be very confidently trusted to repay its cultivator with the expansion of its noble fronds for much less care and trouble than is necessary for many of the British Ferns. It is also a very nice- looking plant when cultivated in pots, which may be easily done. The principal points are, a good supply of water and good drainage, with allowance of space for the roots as the plant increases in size. A compost of equal parts loam and peat, with an admixture of sand sufficient to keep the soil open, will meet its wishes in any situation. Let it be potted rather firmly, but not hardly. The propagation is as directed for former species, by division or by its fructification. T.ASTR<E'A THEIA'PTERIS. LASTR.EA THELYPTEK1S. 185 /* LASTRJS'A THELYTTERIS. THIS has been called by different botanists Acrostichum, Aspidium, Athyrium, Hemestlieum, Polypodium, and Polystichum ; but they all agree iu giving it the specific name of Thelypteris, which is literally the Woman or Lady Fern. In English it is known as the Marsh Shield Fern, Marsh Polypody, and Marsh Fern. Root widely creeping, by means of slender, blackish, thread-shaped, smooth, or slightly downy ruuners. From various points in these arise irregularly the/rontfr. These are erect, delicate, deep green, usually smooth, but occasionally slightly hairy. The barren fronds aro about one foot high, but the fertile fronds vary from two to four feet in height. Their stem is slender, and mostly naked, but sometimes slightly scaly, and the lower half without leaflets. These, especially when ban-en, grow markedly horizontally, are narrow spear- head shaped, deeply and regularly pinuatifid, partially opposite, but mostly alternate ; the barren segments blunt, and slightly scolloped; the fertile segments narrower, more pointed, with the edges rolled back. The mid-vein zigzagged, and sometimes very hairy. The lateral veins divide into two branches about half- way between the mid-vein and margin of the segment, and on the fertile fronds each branch of the lateral veins bears a small round mass of the fructification. Each mass is dark brown, at first covered by a thin, white, torn, kidney-shaped cover (indusium), fixed by the 186 LASTR^EA THELYPTERIS. centre, but which sooii is elevated and shed. The masses eventually run together into lines, and some- times nearly cover the segment. It is found in boggy meadows and marshes, especially where the soil is gravelly, but is rare, and though found in different parts of the British Islands, is very local. It is more common in Scotland than in England or Ireland. In England, on Learmouth Bogs, in Northum- berland ; near Settle, in Yorkshire ; at Allesley, in War- wickshire; on Knutsford Moor and New Church Bog, near Over, in Cheshire ; on Oxton Bogs, in Nottingham- shire ; in Windsor Park and Sunning Hill Wells, in Berkshire ; in the valley below Caesar's Camp, on Wim- bledon Common ; and on Leath Hill, in Surrey ; in a bog on Waterdown Forest, near Tunbridge Wells ; at Belton, and near Bungay, in Suffolk; at St. Faith's, Newton Bogs, near Norwich ; and in Somersetshire and Sussex. In Wales, in a moist dell at the foot of Snowdon, near Llanberris; on the border of the lake near Red Wharf; and at Beaumaris, in Anglesea. In Ireland, on the marshes at Glencree, in Wicklow, and at Ne- veruss, Killarney. This Fern was first noticed as an English plant by Ray. He mentions it in his Synopsis Methodica Stir- pium Britannicarum, as the Filix minor palustris repens, Creeping Water Fern, or Lesser Marsh Fern. Mr. Reeve informs us that the Lastrcea thetypteris will be found to thrive pretty well under pot-culture, and with ordinary care will become a very elegant object. Being one of those Ferns which choose a marshy place LASTRyEA THELTfPTERIS. 187 for their natural habitation, it will be found vey useful for planting upon the base of the rockery, where, when once established, it will soon spread and show its beauty, for, when seen in a mass, it is a very handsome Fern. It produces its fertile fronds, which arc the finest, in much greater abundance where it has full scope for its roots, delighting as it does in being per- mitted to creep about where it chooses. It may, however, be treated very successfully under pot-culture ; but, as it will be seen, from its creeping nature, a pan will be far better to grow it m than any other vessel, as it does not require depth so much as surface-room. The drainage in the pan must be formed by a layer of crocks at the bottom, then a layer of coarse, fibry peat, filling half the depth of tht pan, and the remainder with a compost of two-thirds turfy peat, and one-third of leaf- mould, with a free admixture of silver sand, and a few pieces of crock broken very small. In this compost, with a free supply of water, the plant will flourish as if at home. The same compost will suit it for planting out. It may be propagated easily by division, and may be grown also under glass. The plants in pots or pans will require a slight protection through the winter Some botanists have considered as species, and even as belonging to a new genus, forms of Ferns which, we believe, are only varieties of the species of Lastrtea, which we have particularised. Thus Aspidium dume- torum, Lophodium glandulosum, and Lophodium colli- num, we consider varieties of Lastrasa dilatata, and Lophodium uliginosum of Lastraa cristata. 188 OPHIOGLOSSUM VULGATL'M. /OPHIOGLO'SSUM VULGA'TUM. THAT this is a Fern very distinct from all others is de- monstrated by the fact that it has never received from botanists any other generic name than Ophioglossuni , and with but a solitary exception no other specific name than that under which we notice it. The ex- ception is 0. ovatum, the name uuder which it is de- scribed by Mr. Salisbury. Its English name is equally unique, being known by no other than Adder's Tongue. The botanical name is merely a translation of this, derived from the Greek words opliis, a serpent, and qlossa, a tongue. Boot small, carrot - shaped, with numerous stout, yellow, smooth, fibrous rootlets, spreading horizontally. Frond from three to nine, and even more inches high ; its stem pale green, round, hollow, and tapering down- wards; the barren lobe of the frond, usually called the leaf, stalkless, solitary, egg-shaped, lurid green, nearly upright, sheathing the stem; the fertile lobe, which gives the plant its name, from its somewhat tongue-like shape, is really a spike of fructification, as in the Botryehium and Osmunda ; it rises from withinside the base of the barren lobe, stalked, narrow, slightly taper- ing upwards, pointed, bearing the fructification in a line along each of its two edges ; the fructification is embedded in roundish, yellow masses, which, gaping when the spores have escaped, present a series of clefts OPBIOGLO'SSVD vci.OA*r!l. OPIIIOGLOSSUM VULGATUM. 191 along each e;lge. Tliis tongue-shaped lobe is usually entire, but sometimes is divided into two ; the leaf- like lobe, also, though in general whole, is occasionally deeply cleft at the top. It is usually found in meadows and moist pastures; but we have also found it in Hampshire, in an open copse, in an old chalk-pit at Abbot's Barton, near Win Chester. In England it has been found, also, at Middleton-one- row, Durham; Round House, near Richmond, York- shire; West Felton, Shropshire; behind Heawood Hall, near Alderley, Cheshire ; near Warrington, Lancashire; near Braimston, Leicestershire; Heanor and Love Lane, near Derby, Derbyshire ; Colwick, Nottingham- shire; Broadmoor, near Birmingham; Pottery Car; near Blymhill, Staffordshire; near Bristol; at the side of a pond on Wike Farm, Sion Lane, Isleworth ; near the ladder- stile, Osterley Park, near Brentford, Mid- dlesex ; at Beddington, near Bungay, and Meltingham Castle, Suffolk ; four miles south of Dorking, Surrey; meadows of Longleat, Wilts; about Slateford, near Barnstaple, Devon ; and in various parts of Norfolk, Herts, Kent, and Hants. In Scotland, in Dalmeney Woods, near Edinburgh; in Orkney ; at Balmuto ; and at Carlowrie. In Wales, near Wrexham ; and on the lawn of the Observatory, Duusink, and many other parts of Ireland. The first writer mentioning it as an English plant is Dr. William Turner, who, in the third part of his 192 OPHIOGLOSSUM VULGATUM. Herball, published in 1568, says, " The Adder's Tongue, or Ophyoglosson, groweth in moyst and medowes in the end of April ; " adding, after giving a very characteristic woodcut, " This is a wounde herbe, and healeth woundes which are almost uncurable, or at the least wonderfully hard to be healed. The nature of it is also to dryve away great swellinges, and to prevent extreme inflam- mations. Some use to bruise it with Swyne's grese, and to kepe it and laye it upon swellinges ; but I councell rather to seth it when it is grene with sallet oyle, and to kepe it, and then will it be good both for swellings and woundes also." This is still used as an application to fresh wounds, and country-people know it as " Adder's- spear ointment." There is a very permanent variety of this Fern, which by some botanists has been raised to the dignity of a species, under the name of Ophioglossum Lusitanicum, the Spanish or Lesser Adder's Tongue. Its only re- markable differences from O. vulgatum are its shorter growth, its producing more than one leaf, and the leaves being stalked and spear-head-shaped. The drawing on the opposite page will best make its differences understood. " For its discovery in the Channel Islands we are in- debted to Mr. George Wolsey, who found it among short herbage on the summit of rocks not far from Petit Bot Bay, on the south coast of the Island of Guernsey, growing with Trichonema Columns and Scilla autumnaUs" (Sowerby's Ferns, edited by Charles Johnson.) OPHIOGLOSSUM VULGATUM. 193 Mr. W. Reeve, writing to U8 relative to the culture of these Ferns, says: ' The Ophioglossum vulgatum is scarcely worth cul- tivating unless for curiosity, or for completing a col- lection, in which case it should not be absent. Although of simple appearance, yet, when cultivated with other species of Ferns, it will not fail to give satisfaction, and, like the Ophioglossum Lusitanicum, may be very easily grown, and will soon spread and form a mass, under favourable circumstances, at the base of the Fernery or o 194 OPHIOGLOSSUM VULGATUM. rockery. Let it have a compost of equal parts lonni, leaf-mould, and peat, with an admixture of sand. There is not enough interest in the plant itself to be grown away from other Ferns. " It may be also grown in pots, or wide, shallow pans, in the same compost. It must be potted firmly, with a good drainage, and requires a good supply of water. It may be propagated by division, or by the fructification, to be treated in the same way as directed for former genera. It will be as well to give both these Ferns a slight protection in winter when cultivated in pots. Each will thrive well in the greenhouse." OSMU'NDA KEGJL'LIS. OSMUNDA. REGALIS. 197 / OSMU'NDA REGA'LIS. THIS very stately Fern has never been called by modern botanists otherwise than by the above names ; and its usual English names bear the same import, for it has been called The Royal Fern, Osmund Royal, Royal Moonwort, and Royal Brackens. Early writers, how- ever, have called it by names less dignified, for we find it mentioned as Flowering Fern, Osmund the Waterman, Water Fern, and Saint Christopher's Herb. Its root is tuberous, woody, scaly, sometimes extend- ing horizontally, but at others rising erect as much even as two feet out of the ground, and at all times furnished with numerous, strong, fibrous rootlets. The fronds rise from the crown of the root. The fertile fronds are usually two or three feet high, and few in number; but the barren fronds are more numerous, and often attain to more than six feet ; and Mr. S. Murray, on the banks of the Clyde, measured one tuft that was eleven feet and a half in height. Their stem is smooth, and reddish when young ; they are doubly leafleted, the primary divisions being opposite, and the secondary divisions mostly alternate. Leqfits smooth, bright green, nearly stalkless, somewhat heart-shaped, or slightly lobed at the base oblong, bluntish, entirely or only slightly scolloped, but we have seen them slightly toothed; they have one mid-vein, and numerous lateral veins. In the fertile fronds the upper leafits are divided and changed, aa it were, into dense clusters or spikes of 198 OSMUNDA REGALI8. capsules. The terminal divisions of the frond are com- posed entirely of such capsules, forming a compound, loose cluster or panicle. Each capsule is at first green, but becomes pale reddish-brown, veined, two-valved, and on a short stalk; the seeds (spores) are numerous, and nearly globular. It is not very common, and is found in wet bogs, woods, and hedges. In England it has been found at Low-gelt Bridge, Allowby, and Keswick, in Cumberland ; between Stone- bridge and Bradnoek's Marsh, near Parker's Mill, in Warwickshire ; at Ellesmere Lakes, Moreton Moors, and West Felton, in Shropshire; at Speke, between Crosby and Formby, and on Chat Moss, near Liver- pool ; Walston Moss, near Warrington, in Lan- cashire ; in the Isle of Man ; Chartley Moss, in Staffordshire; at Pottery Car, near Doncaster; near Leeds; near the upper mill at Bulwell, in Notting- hamshire; on bogs near Yarmouth, and St. Faith's, Newton Bogs, Norwich; in Kavanagh's Wood, Great Warley, near the Barracks at Little Warley, and at Danbury, in Essex ; near Leith Hill, and near Dorking, in Surrey; on Bagsbot Heath ; between Frimley village and Frimley Green, and on Esher Common, in Surrey ; at Tunb ridge, in Kent; at the corner of the Lake, Uckfield, in Sussex.; on the cliffs near Dawlish, near Chudleigh, on the banks of the Teign, and at Ivy Bridge, on the Erme, in Devon; on the Goodhilly Downs, near St. Ives, and in the mouths of old mines near M.arazion and Cosgarne, Cornwall ; in the Isle OSMUNDA BEGAL1S. 199 of Wight; at Saudford Bridge, near Wareham, and at New Bridge, near Wimborrie, iu Dorset; in the New Forest, and at Freemantle, near Southampton. In Scotland, at the head of Loch Fine, to the north- east of Inverary, Argyleshire, and on the Dumbarton side, near Loch Lomond ; at the side of the Loch at Incliuedamff, Sutherlandshire ; in Aberdeenshire, and on the coast of Kincardineshire. In Ireland, at Mucruss Abbey ; at Castlebar, in Mayo, and in Kelly's Glen, county of Dublin. In Wales, near Llyn Traffwll, in the turbary at Trewilmot, near Holyhead. The first notice of this "flower -crowned Prince of British Ferns " is in the edition of Oerardes Herbal of 1597. He says, "It groweth in the midst of a bog, at the further end of Hampstead Heath, from London, at the bottome of a hill adjoyning to a small cottage, and in divers other places; as also upon divers bogges on a heath or common neere unto Bruntwood, in Essex, especially neere unto a place there that some have digged, to the end to find a nest or mine of gold ; but the birds were over fledge, and flowne away, before their wings could be clipped." The root of this Fern was considered by ancient phy sieians, " especially the heart, or middle part thereof," as a powerful remedy if applied to wounds. That " middle part," says Gerarde, " hathe beene called the heart of Osmund the Waterman." Dodoens, in 1583, was the first to call this Fern by the name of Osmund ; and, as Dodoens was a Fleming, 200 OSMUNDA REGAINS. we might expect from Flanders to ascertain the origin of this name; but it remains unexplained. Parkinson says it was called " Osmunda regalis, of the singular properties therein;" but whether he refers to the first or second word of the name is not specified. Osmund, in Anglo-Saxon, is " House-peace ;" at least, so says Carnden ; and " House-peace royal " may have reference to its then credited powers as a vulnary. Wordsworth, with a poet's license, but no authority, thus speaks of this Fern : '' Fair Ferns and flowers, and chiefly that tall Fern, So stately, of the Queen Osmunda named ; Plant lovelier, in its own retired abode, On Grasmere'a beach, than Naiad by the side Of Grecian brook, or Lady of the Mere, Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance." Another poet anonymously refers to the same plant as follows: " Auld Botany Ben was wont to jog Thro* rotten slough and quagmire bog, Or brimfull dykes and marshes dank Where Jack-a- Lanterns play and prank, To teek a cryptogameous store Of Moss, of Carex, and Fungus hoare, Of Ferns and Brakes, and such-like sights, As tempt out scientific wights On winter's day ; but most his joy Was finding what's called Osman Hoy." This most noble of all the British Ferns, being so distinct from all others, and being so easily cultivated, should not be absent from any collection. Mr. W. Reeve says that it will be found to delight in a compost of three-parts fibry peat and one of vegetable mould, OSMUNDA REGALIS. 201 with a free admixture of silver sand. If grown in a pot, which must be large, or other confined space, it must have good drainage, and an abundant and continuous supply of water. With a moderate space for its roots it makes a noble-looking plant. For open-air culture it prefers a damp, shady situation, and in the compost as for pot-culture it will thrive and do well. It may be also grown in exposed situations with an abundant supply of water through the summer months. In such an exposure it will not produce nearly such fine fronds as in one more shaded; yet, if a constant supply of water and good drainage can be secured, it will do remarkably well. We have also grown this Osmunda very success- fully in a stove temperature, where it will, with plenty of light, form also a pleasing object. It is too large for a Wardian case. It may be increased by sowing its seeds, and also by division ; but by its seeds is the best mode. 202 POLY PODIUM ALPESTRE. POLYPO'DIUM ALPE'STRE. THIS, until a few years since, was unnoticed as a British Fern, apparently because it lias the aspect, unless closely inspected, of Athyrium filix-fcemina. It has been called Polypodium rhccticum and Pseudathyrium alpestre ; but we know of no other English name than Alpine Poly- pody, & name very appropriate, because it is found only in mountain glens at high elevations. Root, in its wild state, lying down, much branched, with a tuft of fronds at the end of each branch. Fronds, from one to three feet high, in circular tufts; their stem rather swollen at the base, and only about one- fifth of its length bare of leaflets, this bare part having a few brown, broad, pointed scales. The general out- line of the frond is narrow spear-head-shaped ; leaflets alternate, and their leafits, like the frond, narrow spear- head shaped, on short stalks, at right angles with the stalk of the leaflet, deeply cut at their edges, and each section sharply toothed ; their mid-vein zigzag, and with lateral veins branching Into each section, beariug a mass of fructification at the end of one of their branches midway between the mid-vein and edge of the leafit. Each mass is circular, generally distinct, but sometimes running together. This Fern was first discovered in the British Isles by Mr. H. C. Watson, who, in 1841, found it on Ben Aulder, in Inverness-shire, and iu Caulocken Glen, For- farshire. It has since been found on the Clova Moun- POLYPO'DIUM ALPE'STBE. POLYPODIUM ALPESTRE. 205 tains by Mr. Backhouse, who observes that Athyrium Jili-x-fcemina accompanies it up as high as from 2,000 to 3,000 feet ; but from the latter height, up to 4,000 feet, Pohjpodium alpestre is alone. Mr. W. Reeve informs us that Polypodium alpestre is well worthy of cultivation, for, when successfully grown, it is erect, yet elegant. It requires a well-drained com- post, composed of fibry peat two parts, and fine loam and leaf-mould equalised to form the other two parts, with an admixture of silver sand and freestone crocks, or some such porous substance, broken very small. The plants in pots must have a good drainage, and be kept moist during the growing season, and gradually dried oft' and ripened as winter approaches, when they will require a slight protection ; to be either shifted into larger pots or deep pans in the spring, or to be parted and placed in smaller pots. If cultivated on rockwork, or in any fixed situation, care must be taken to procure a thorough drainage. In any case, if the drainage is bad, the plant will not thrive. It must be planted firmly upon a shallow supply of the above-named compost. This, with a few pieces of porous stone or old mortar laid about the surface, will be beneficial. It prefers an open situation, but does not like the rays of the sun much. If these directions are followed, and a moderate supply of water given overhead during the growing season, success may be expected. It may be grown well in a greenhouse where it can have plenty of light, and it can be propagated by division. 20C POLYPODIUM CACCAREUM. POLYPO'DIUM CALCA'REUM. THIS, by modern botanists, was confounded with P. dryopteris ; but, though much resembling, there is no reasonable doubt of their being two distinct species. Root dark brown, but stouter and less widely creeping tban that of P. dryopteris. Its rootlets are almost black, scattered, and wiry. The stem of each frond is firm and stiff, varying in height from six to eighteen inches, and nearly two-thirds of its length being without leaflets. The stalks of the two lower leaflets are so much more stout tban the stalks of those above them, that some botanists consider them as two branches, and call it a three-branched Fern. The unleafleted portion of the stem is stout, pale, very scaly, and bearing numerous small, stalked glands. These glands are found also on the leaflets, and give the whole plant a mealy aspect. The general outline of the frond is nearly equilateral triangular. Leaflets opposite ; the lower ones, in very luxuriant specimens, have leafits alternate and deeply cut (pinnatifid). The upper leaflets are only deeply cut, or lobed ; but the edges of both leafits and lobes are scolloped and fringed with very small, stalked glands. Each leafit and lobe has a wavy mid-vein, from which proceed very regularly, in pairs, lateral or side-veins; these side-veins are also very regularly forked, and on the upper branch of each fork, about midway between the edge of the leafit or lobe and its mid-vein, is a circular mass of fructification. The masses become POLYPO'DIUM CAT.CA'BEUH. POLTPODIUM CALCAREUM. 209 brown and crowded as they ripen. The colour of the entire frond is a very distinguishing mealy, dark green. It is found only on a limestone soil (whence its * specific name, calcareum), on mountainous heaths, and in wooded places. We are not aware of its being found native in either Ireland or Scotland; but in England it grows about Matlock Bath, and on the road-side under the Lover's Leap at Buxton, in Derbyshire ; at Sbeddin Clough, near Burnley, and near Lancaster ; at Arncliff, Gordale, White Scars, near Ingleton, and near iSettle, in Yorkshire; on Cheddar Cliffs and Box Quarries, near Bath, in Somersetshire ; and in Leigh Woods, near Bristol. This is not a newly-discovered Fern, for it was known to Clusius, Taberuseiuontanus, and Gerarde ; but it was first recognised as a native of England by the late President of the Linnsean Society, Sir J. E. Smith. It has been described by botanists under the following names : Gymnocarpium Roberlianum, Lastrtea calcarea, and L. Mobertiana, Phegopteris calcarea, and Polypo- dium Robertianum. In Johnson's edition of Gerarde s Herbal it is figured and described as Dryopteris Tragi. In English it is known as the Limestone Polypody, Rigid three-branched Polypody, and Smith's Fern. Mr. W. Reeve says that this Fern, like the P. alpestre, is a desirable species for cultivation, and is very scarce. It is pretty, and may be very successfully treated. It will be found to prefer, and, in fact, will not do in any other than, a free, open compost, composed of fibry peat, loam, and vegetable mould, equalised to form p 210 POLYPODIUM CALCAREUM. two parts, and very old mortar and lime or sand- stone for the other two parts, with a free addition of silver sand. A good drainage must also be secured, and the plant fixed firmly in the situation it is to re- main in. It likes a free supply of water overhead through the summer months, but to be withheld as winter approaches ; and it must be ripened off to stand through that season. The above-particularised compost and directions will be suitable either for pot-culture or for cultivation on rockwork, where it will bear moderate exposure to the sun ; but, as with the P. alpestre, a thoroughly good drainage and a free supply of water will be necessary ; the water, of course, not to be used while the sun is shining upon it. It thrives remarkably well in a greenhouse, and may be easily propagated by division. POLYPO'DIUM DEYO'PTEEIS. POLYPOD1UM DRYOPTERIS. 213 POLYPO'DIUM DRYO'PTERTS. THIS Fern has uniformly borne the specific name of dryopteris, from being sometimes found among the moss about the root of Oak-trees, drys being the Greek for au Oak, and pteris for a Fern. It has been included, however, iu. various genera by different bo- tanists, being described by them as a Gymnocarpium, Lastreea, Phegopteris, and Polystichum. In English it is known as the Three-branched Polypody. Its root is black, widely creeping, thread-like, wavy, and slightly hairy, with numerous tufts of rootlets. Fronds from five to twelve inches high, with nearly a five-sided outline when laid flat ; but this form is not apparent in their growing posture, owing to their very flaccid growth. Stem slender, brittle, pale green, very smooth, with the exception of a few scales at the bottom ; dividing into three branches at the top, each branch about one-third the length of the stem, but the middle branch is rather the longest. The branches spread loosely and drooping, so as to be arched above. The branches really are large, pale, bright green leaflets, smooth, fine-textured, and cut into deep, oblong, blunt segments, wavy or toothed at their edge, and rather rolled back, and smooth, except having a slight downi- ness on the mid-vein. Instead of segments there are a few stalkless leaflets near the base of each branch. Each branch is triangular in its general outline. Mid- veiu wavy, with alternate side-veins, which fork, and 214 POLYPODIUM DRYOPTEK1S. bear a mass of fructification on the inner branch of each fork midway between the edge and the mid-vein of the segment of the leaflet. The masses are pale, convex, and permanently distinct, turning brown when ripe, and are without hairs, scales, or other covering. It is found on shaded mountain-sides. Jn England, above Langley Ford, near the Cheviot Mountains; among rocks at the fall of Lodore, Derwent Water, in Cumberland ; in Barrowfield-wood, near Kendal ; near Durham; in Wedwood Forest, near Yoxhall Lodge, Staffordshire; near the upper part of the Tees ; at Hill Cliff, Cheshire ; Egerton Moor, and Dean Church Clough, near Boltou; and Boghart Hole Clough and Prestwich Clough, Lancashire ; rocks at Belle Hag, Sheffield; Richmond, and about North Bierley, in Yorkshire ; Cornbury Quarry, in Oxfordshire ; at Froddesley Hill, and north side of Titterstone Glee Hill, in Shropshire ; in woods north-east of the road up Frocester Hill, in Gloucestershire ; and Leigh Woods, near Bristol. In Wales, near Tintern Abbey; at Craig Breidden, Montgomeryshire ; Rhaiadr-y-Wenol-Twll-Du, Caernar- vonshire ; near Llangollen on a slate rock ; frequent in North Wales. In Scotland, on the banks of the White Adder, between the Retreat and Elm Cottage, Berwickshire, at Laugholm and Broomholm, in Eskdale; at Moray, in Ross-shire ; Hawthorn Dean, near Edinburgh ; about Duukeld, in Stormont ; common in Aberdeen- shire, Forfarshire, and Perthshire. POLYPODIUM DRYOPTERIS. 215 In Ireland, at Connamara, Killarney, Mourne Moun- tains, Mam Turk, Tullamore Park, Turk Mountain, and other mountain districts. This is the Filix ramosa minor, or Smaller-branched Fern, of Bauhin's Historia Plantarum, where it is well represented by the woodcut. It is certainly not the Dryopteru Tragi of Clusius, Gerarde, and Parkinson. It was not known to Ray as a British plant when he published, in 1670, his Catalogus Plantarum Anglic ; but he had discovered it near Tintern Abbey before he published the first volume of his Historia Plantarum, in 1685, and this is the first certain notice of its being a member of the British Flora. The Polypodium dryopteris is well worthy of culti- vation, and, from its distinctness and comparatively compact habit, will be found to be very useful for rock- work, or any retired spot where moisture and shade can be commanded. It has, like the last-named species, a creeping main root, and will, like it, also require a shallow compost, composed of two-thirds fibry peat, with one-third leaf-mould, and a free admixture of sand and a little finely-broken sandstone. This compost will grow it either iu the rockery or in a pot. In either case a good drainage must be secured; for, although the growing plant delights in an abundant supply of water, yet it is most averse to water remaining about its roots. There- fore this must be attended to, and, after the usual articles are placed (such as crocks, broken bricks, or porous stones) for the drainage, a layer of moss, or the roughest parts of the peat, should be placed over the 216 POLYPODIUM DRYOPTERIS. crocks or stone. This will prevent the fine compost from filling the vacancies among the drainage upon the moss or rough peat. A depth of about three inches of the prepared compost will be quite sufficient. Upon this the plants are to be placed rather firmly, the main root of the plants to be just, and only just, below the surface. After this is done, providing the weather is anything but wet, a moderate watering should follow to settle the whole, after which the plants will require to be kept moist until the new fronds begin to unfold, when, as they increase iu size, a free supply of water will be necessary over the whole plant, so that a shady, moist atmosphere may be kept about it as steadily as possible. The same directions as regards drainage and planting must be observed for pot culture, giving a continual supply of water during the growing season, and keep- ing the pots in the shade. This Polypodium may be readily increased by division. As winter approaches the water should be gradually withheld, and the plants allowed to have a drier soil to stand in through that season. The plants in pots should have a slight protection during the winter. They thrive remarkably well in a greenhouse, and would do well for a case of hardy Ferns. POLVPO'DIUM PKEGO'PTERIS. POLYPODIUM PIIECSOl'TEUIS. 219 * POLYPO'DIUM PHEGOTTERIS. THIS species, by some botanists, bas been included in the following genera Gymnocarpium, Lastraa,Hn(l Poly- itichum. In every instance, however, they retained the specific name, phegopteris, singularly inapplicable as it is; for phegos, a Birch-tree, and pteris, a Fern, literally the Beech Feru, has no reference either to its shape or to its haunts, for it is more rarely found in woods than on mountains. In English it is known as the Pale Mountain Polypody, Mountain Polypody, and Sun Fern, names referring to the high and fully-exposed- to-the-light situations in which it delights. Its root is dark-coloured, thread-shaped, wavy, widely- creeping, scaly, and slightly hairy, emitting fibrous rootlets in tufts wherever fronds are produced from it. Fronds scattered, erect, five to eighteen inches high, sharp -pointed, spear-head shuped, delicate - textured, covered with small hairs. Stem brittle, pale, slender, sometimes rather scaly, more than half its length uu- leafleted. Leaflets sharp -pointed, opposite, the two lowest separated widely from those above them, bent forward, and rather hanging down. Most of the leaflets are deeply cut into numerous broad segments. Each segment is blunt, wavy, somewhat scolloped; sometimes, however, entire, covered with fine hairs, and often fringed. The uppermost leaflets composing the sharp point of the froud are entire, and without segments. The mid-vein of each segment is wavy, and more hairy 220 POLYPODIUM PHEGOPTERIS. than the other parts of the leaflet. The hairs in various parts are often in tufts, or starry. The side-veins are alternate, usually unbranched, and bearing at their upper end, near the margin of the segment, a mass of fructification. Each vein does not hear a mass, there- fore the row is broken. Each mass is naked, circular, very small, and pale yellowish-brown. It is chiefly found in the clefts of rocks in moist, mountainous situations, sometimes on open, stony moors, and still more rarely in woods, but, wherever found, the soil abounds with moisture. In England it has been found on rocks above Langley Ford, at the foot of the Cheviot Hills; at Cawsey Dean, Durham ; about Keswick, Cumberland ; at Egerton Moss, near Bolton, Belle Hag, near Sheffield, at Settle and Wensley Dale, Yorkshire ; at Prestwich Clough and Boghart Clough, Lancashire ; at Norwood, Surrey ; near Brentford, Middlesex; at Lidford Fall and Beckey Fall, Dartmoor, Devonshire; and in the Isle of Man. In Wales, near Llanberris, in the first and second fields towards Snowdon : Capel Curig, North Wales ; and in Caernarvonshire. In Scotland, on the Grampians, in Aberdeenshire ; on Red Caird Hill, west of Inverness-shire; in Forfarshire, Sutherland, Dumbarton, and other parts of the High- lauds ; in Moray and Ross-shire ; on Ben Lomond ; at Ruberslaw and Jedburgh ; and at Campsie, near Glasgow. lu Ireland, on the right hand of Powerscourt Water- TOLYPODIUM PHEGOPTERIS. 221 fall ; at Waterfall above Lough Eske, in Donegal ; and in other parts of northern counties. (Francis' Analysis of British Ferns.) This Fern was not known as a British plant when Ray published, in 1670, his Catalogus Plantanim Angliae; but it is included by Morrison and Bobart in their Historia Plantarum Oxoniensis, published in 1680, and Bobart states that it had been found in the northern parts of England by Mr. T. Lawson and Mr. D. Lhwyd (Lloyd). In those parts it had also been observed by Dr. James Sherard. Dillenius mentions it, in 1724, in the third edition of Ray's Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum, as "Filix minor Britannica pediculo pallidiore, alis inferioribus deorsum spectantibus." (The smaller British Fern, with paler stem, and lower wings looking downwards.) The Poly podium pliegopteris is a free-growing and very pretty species. Under favourable circumstances it will not fail to repay the cultivator. It is remarkably well adapted for cultivating upon the shaded and most moist parts of a Fernery or rockery. Such a situation must be secured for it, it being particularly partial to an abundant and constant supply of water about its roots, and also as often as possible overhead, during the growing season. A situation on the Fernery, where it might be partially overshadowed by some projecting portion of the rockwork, would be suitable; but, although it delights in a situation like this, yet it must be well drained, so that the mould about its roots does not become soddened and water-logged, for stagnant water 222 POLYPODIUM PHEGOPTERIS. throws the plant into a sickly state, and finally deprives it of life. Haviug chosen or constructed a suitable place for it, proceed to drain as directed for the last species, using a moderately thick layer of sphagnum moss, or the roughest parts of the peat, to be pressed firmly together; upon that may be placed a few lumps of sandstone, if at hand, or porous stone of any kind. Room to be allowed for five or six inches of the following compost : Fibry peat three parts, loam one part, and leaf-mould one part, with a free admixture of silver sand. The Fern to be planted firmly in it, so that the main root is barely below the surface, when a few pieces of finely- broken stone strewed about the surface will help to keep the soil open. This operation is best done early in the spring. When all is finished, a liberal watering may be given, and the whole left a few days to settle. Just enough water to keep the soil moist will be suffi- cient until the young fronds begin to unfold, when a more liberal supply must be given, and continued until the winter is approaching, when water must be with- held, and the soil only kept slightly moist through that season. For pot culture the same compost may be used, well draining the pots, or deep pans, which are, perhaps, better, and placing the plants in the same manner as on the rockwork. These must be kept in a close, shady place, and be freely supplied with water, or failure will most surely be the result. This Fern may be very successfully grown in a greenhouse or cool stove, POLYPODIUM PHEGOPTERIg. 223 wliere it may be kept green through the winter, but the pots should have a slight protection. It is very readily increased by division, which should be done in spring. 224 POLYPOD1UM VULGARE. i/POLYPO'DIUM VULGA'RE. WITH hut one exception botanists have never called this Fern by any other name than Polypodium, a name derived from two Greek words, polys, many, and pous, podos, a foot, and having reference, according to Theo- phrastus, to the resemblance borne by its numerous rootlets to the feelers of the polypus. Mr. Newman alone has described it under the name of Ctenopteris vulgaris. It is usually called the Common Polypody, Polypody of the Oak, and Wall Fern. Root creeping horizontally, having very many stout, branched, somewhat woody, hairy rootlets; if left un- disturbed becoming very much twisted and matted; densely clothed with membranous, brown, narrow- toothed, pointed, shining scales. Fronds from six to eighteen inches high ; lowest third of their stalk naked, grooved in front, arid smooth ; narrow spear-head- shaped, deeply cut into many segments, often nearly to the stalk; the segments parallel, slightly distant, narrow oblong, blunt, and flat; seldom quite entire, but often wavy and even toothed, especially at the end. Each segment has a zigzag, prominent mid- vein, from which lateral veins issue alternately. The lowest side-vein, and next to the mid-vein, exclusively bears at its end, if isrtile, a mass of fructification. These masses of fructification are thus in a row, and mid-way between the mid-vein and margin of the segment; each of the other side-veins terminates in a little knob, which POI.YPO'DIDB TULOA'SK. POLYPODIUM VULGARE. 227 looks like an abortive muss ot fructification. Each mass is circular ; depressed at first, but becoming pro- minent; without any cover (indusium), and often run- ning together when ripe. They are then shining, orange- tawny coloured. The spores burst open when moistened. The upper part of each frond is usually fertile. There are three varieties of this Fern found in the British Islands. 1. Polypodium vulgare Canibrieum, or Common Welsh Polypody. It has a broad, somewhat egg-shaped frond, with the segments irregularly toothed, and always barren. Linnaaus considered it a distinct species. This was first known as a British variety in 1686, being then men- tioned by Bay in his Historia Plantarum. He says that he received it from Sir Hans Sloane, and that it was first discovered near Dennis Powis Castle, three miles from Cardiff, in Glamorganshire. It has since been found at Chepstow, in Monmouthshire, near Dun- dry Church, in the vicinity of Bristol, and at Braid Hall, near Edinburgh. P. vulgare sinuatum is a very slight variation of this. 2. Polypodium vulgare serratum, or Common toothed Polypody. The segments of tins are very regularly, and often doubly toothed. It is first mentioned as a British variety in 1724 by Dillenius, in his edition of Ray's "Synopsis of British Plants." He says it was found on the walls of Windsor Castle by the Rev. Mr. Manningham. It has been found, also, near Bristol, in the Ash ton Manor and Leigh Woods. P. vulgare acutum is a very slight 228 POLYPODIUM VULGARE. variation of this, the segments being more pointed, and has been found on rocks in North Wales ; in Cobhhin Park, Kent; and in meadows near Maiden and Ewel), in Surrey. P. vulgar e Hiliemicum is another sub-variety, the segments being more deeply out and partly scolloped, found in the Dargle, in the county of Wicklow. 3. Polypodium vulgxre bifidum, or Common forked Polypody. In this variety the end of each segment is forked or divided into two segments, spread away from each other. Sometimes the segments are divided into three lobes at the end, and it is then called P. vulgare proliferum. This variety has been found iu a wood near Bingley, in Yorkshire, and at Chepstow, in Monmouth- shire. Many other sub-varieties might bo mentioned, but they all pass by various gradations into one another, and we do not believe that any one of the varieties is permanent. Cultivation, we think, would reduce them all to the form of the original species. This species is common throughout the British Islands on old walls, old roofs of cottages, shady banks, and trunks of old trees. The first botanical writer who mentions this as an English Fern is Dr. William Turner In the second part of his " Herbal," published in 1562, he gives a very fair woodcut of this plant, and speaks of it as the " Englishe Polypody," "Wall Feme," and " Okc Feme." Lyte'and Gerarde copied Turner's woodcut. They all dwell upon the medical qualities of this Fern; but, although POLYPODIUH VULbrAUE. 229 Dioscorides did so before them, it is only thereby demonstrated to be an error so much the older. They recommended it as a cathartic; but Dr. Wood ville cor- rectly observes, "Another character in which it has been recommended, and for which, from its sensible qualities, it seems to promise more advantage, is that of a demul- cent or pectoral ; thus conjoined with liquorice its good effects have been experienced in coughs and asthmatic affections. However, it is now rarely used in this country, nor have the French authors, Poissoner and Malouin, who have cited instances of its success in mania, been able to restore to it its ancient reputation in this calamitous disorder." The root, which is the part medically made use of, has a peculiar bitterish-sweet taste when fresh. It has been analysed by M. Desfosses, who found in it a sweet substance resembling sarcocollin, mannite, iucrystal- lisable sugar, starch, albumen, malic acid, lime, mag- uesia, and oxide of lime. M. Planche also found in it viscin, which is more popularly known as bird-lime. Mr. W. Reeve is a great admirer of this species. He says, "The most distinct, the most generally known, and, perhaps, the most ornamental of all the Pohjpodiums is vulgare. It is a very hanflsome and useful Fern, and well adapted for cultivating upon the Fernery or rockery, or for adorning any out-of-the-way place. It is so well known, and so easily managed, that little need be said of its culture. The more elevated parts of the rockwork will be most suitable for it, aud the shady parts in pre- ference to the more exposed parts, although it will bear 230 POLTPODJ.UM VULGA.UE. a moderate degree of exposure to light when once established. It particularly delights in the decaying trunks of old trees, so that these should be introduced in forming the rockery, and the plants fixed upon them by filling the crevices with fine leaf-mould, peat, and sand, and fixing the main root of the Fern upon this com- post early in the spring ; or it may be planted in other parts of the rockery in the above-mentioned eonnpost, with a free admixture of sand. It requires only a moderate supply of water, and must be well drained. It is as hardy as any of the species, but will, if pro- tected a little, remain green all the winter. If exposed to severe frost the fronds become brown and die off. It will grow very well in pots or pans with a good drainage, and in the above-named compost. It will grow, also, in the greenhouse, where it forms a very pretty object, and becomes evergreen. It may be easily propagated by division, which must be done iu the spring." POLY'STICHUM ACULEA'TUM. I'OLYsriCHUM ACULEATDM. 233 / POLY'STICHUM ACULEAT UM. THIS lias been included by various botanists in the genera Aspidium and Polypodium, but all have retained the specific name aculeatum, prickly, on account of the sharp-pointed character of the teeth on the edge of the leafits. Some botanists consider it and P. angulare only different forms of the same species. In English it is known as the Common Prickly Shield Fern. Root large, woody, enlarging very slowly, tufted, pro- ducing many coarse, wiry side rootlets. Fronds numerous, spreading in a circle; their upper side shining, dark bluish green, but paler underneath ; in general outline spear-head shaped, sometimes broad, at others narrow, but always tapering to a point, and rather stiff when mature, though very limp when young ; in height from two to three feet. Stemleafleted to within three or four inches of its base, and covered throughout with reddish- brown scales. Leaflets alternate, close together, narrow spear-head shaped, tapering to a point. Leafits all rather convex, alternate, the upper one next the stern always larger than the others, and parallel with it, giving the stem somewhat the appearance of being bordered with alternate leafits. They are distinctly, though rather shortly stalked, irregular arrow-head shaped. Towards the upper end of the leaflet they are joined together at their base (decurrent); the upper side of each is largest, sharply saw-toothed, the teeth being unequal, and the points so sharp as to b really prickles : 234 POLYSTICHUM ACULEATUM. the end tooth inclines to one side ; the lowermost tooth on the upper edge forms somewhat of a lobe. The mid- vein of each leafit has alternate side-veins, and these side-veins are again branched ; of the upper side-veins that next the mid-vein bears a mass of fructification. The fructification is produced almost exclusively on the leafits at the top of the frond, and the masses form a parallel line of circles, gradually diminishing in size from the base of the leafit to its point on each side of the mid- vein. They often press against each other, but rarely run together. Each mass has a flat, circular cover, unnotched, and with an elevation in the centre when young. There are two varieties, which seem merely alterations of form, arising from accidental circumstances of soil and situation, and of which it is sufficient to say, that of obtusum the teeth are more scollop -shaped, yet prickly; and alatum has the leaflets connected by a wing proceeding from the sides of the stem. It is most common in the south of England in woods and on shady banks, especially if moist and stony. In England it has been found at Benroyd Clough, Norland, and Toadholes Wood, in Sowerby Dean, both near Halifax, and near Richmond, in Yorkshire; in Leigh, St. Anne's, and Stapleton Woods, near Bristol ; in Burton Wood, near Warrington, in Lancashire; in Shapscombe Wood, near Pain swick, Gloucestershire; at Ulverscroft Priory, in Charnwood Forest ; at the Valley, near Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire; in the Isle of Man ; at Elmdon House, Warwickshire ; on Little Warlev Common, Essex ; about Tunbridge Wells POLYSTICHUM ACULEATUM. 235 Kent ; near Bramshot, Hants ; at Osterley Park, Lamp- ton Lane, and Sion Lane, near Brentford, in Middle- sex ; near Hastings and other places in Sussex; at Kmgsteignton, in Devon ; and near Gurnet Bay, in the ]sle of Wight. lu Wales, near Wrexham, in Denbighshire; at Cickle, near Beauraaris, and at Lleiniog Castle, Anglesey ; and near Bangor and Caernarvon. In Scotland, about Drumlanrig, in Nitl.sdale; at Peasebridge ; and. on Cartlaad Rocks, near Lanark. In Ireland, at Colin Glen, Belfast; Hedge Banks, near Carrickfergus ; and near Clonmel. Johnson, in his edition of " Gerarde's Herbal," is the first to mention this Fern as a British plant, and we have the unusual occurrence, not only of the name of its discoverer, but of the very day of its discovery. He describes it as Filix mas non ramosa pinnulis latis, auri- culatis, spinosis (Male Fern not branched, with broad eared and prickly leafits) ; adding, " This I take to be Filix mas aculeata major Bauhini (Bauhin's Larger prickly Male Fern) ; neither have I seen any figure resembling this plant. It groweth abundantly on the shadowy moist rocks by Maple-Durham, near Petersfield, in Hampshire. John Ooodyer, July 4, 1633." Polysticlium aculeatum is a free-growing, easily- managed, and very desirable Fern for the rockery, feruery, and also for pot culture. It grows remarkably well in sandy loam and peat (fibry is the best) in equal parts, with an admixture of sand. It requires a tolerable depth of mould to grow in, and to be well 236 POLYSTICHUM ACULEATUM. drained. During its growing season it must be supplied rather freely with water, although not to make the soil marshy. It bears exposure to light pretty well when once established, but will become much finer if in the shade. It is perfectly hardy, and will bear very severe weather unless the roots are too much exposed, for in that case it is apt to perish. If grown iu pots, a. slight protection of some kind is desirable, for it will bear in- door treatment much better than many others of the British Ferns. The fructification is ripe by the end of the summer, and from the fructification it may be increased in the same wav as directed for other Ferns. rOLY'STICHUM ANfiULA'HE. POLYSTICHDM ANGULARE. 239 |/ POLY'STICHUM ANGULA'RE. THIS is the Aspidium aculeatum of the botanist Kunze. Indeed, there is much disagreement among authorities as to the differences between Polystichum aculeatum and P. angulare and their varieties. As there are sufficient points of distinction we have avoided, by retaining them as separate species, any attempt to reconcile the dissen- tients. That now under our consideration is the Aspi- dium angulare of some botanists. In English it has been called Angular-leaved Shield Fern, Soft Prickly Shield Fern, and Angular Prickly Shield Fern. Its main root is large, tufted, often upright and trunk- like when old. It sends forth many creeping side-shoots, which produce crowns, and the whole are furnished with many coarse, wiry rootlets. The fronds spear -head shaped in general outline vary in height from two to four, and even more, feet. They are more soft and deli- cate in their texture than those of P. aculeatum, con- sequently they are more flexible, drooping, and elegant in their habit of growth ; they are also more shaggy. Of the stem about one-fourth is unleafleted, and is, as well as the stalks of the leaflets, very thickly covered with reddish-brown chaff-like scales. Towards the ex treme ends of the leaflets the scales gradually are finer until they really become hairs. The leaflets are alternate and narrow spear-head in outline. The lea/its are alter- nate, flat, stalked, and would be pointed egg-shaped if the upper side did not produce near its base an irregular- 240 POLYSTICHUM ANGULAUE. toothed lobe ; all are saw-edged. The lowest leafit on the upper edge of the leaflet's stalk, and next the stem of the frond, is larger than the other leafits, though not so markedly larger or regular in its position up the stem as in P. aculeatum. All the lobes and teeth end kx hairs, softer and less bristle-like than in P. aculeatum, and on their under surface are many hair-like scales. The mid- vein of each leafit is straight, emitting side- veins in oppo- site pairs, and the side-veins are branched. On the lowest of the upper branches of these side-veins is the fructification. It is in circular masses, each having a cover (indusium), slightly depressed in the centre, and usually entire. There are two varieties. Subtripinnatum (almost- doubly -leafited), with the lower leafits very deeply cut, and the sections or lobes sometimes distinct. An- gustntum (narrow-leafited), all the leafits being very narrow, and much more pointed than are those of the species. It is found in similar situations as P. aculeatum, and is plentiful in England, Wales, and Ireland, but less abundant in Scotland. Wherever aculeatum occurs this species is likely to be found. There is little doubt that this species was known to Kay in 1696, when he published the second edition of his Synopsis Stirpium Britannicarum. After particular- ising the Fern we nave previously described as Poly- stichum aculeatum, Ray next mentions Filix Lonchitidi qffinis (Fern related to Lonchitis), adding, " Under this title was sent to me, by Mr. Lloyd, a plant like to the POLYSTICHUM ANGULARE. 241 preceding, but with rounder leafits, and covered all over with longer scales. He collected it in the mountain parts of Wales." Mr. W. Reeve very correctly observes that PoJystichutH anyulare will thrive remarkably well under the same course of treatment as w.is given for P. aculeatum ; for like that it delights in a well-drained, shady situation, and in the same compost. It is a very desirable and a very hardy plant ; yet, when cultivated in pots or situations where the roots are much exposed, a slight protection will be necessary during severe weather. It may be increased in the same manner as aculeatum. 24:2 POLYSTICHUM LOBATUM. / POLY'STICHUM LOBA'TUM. THIS is considered by some botanists merely as a variety of PoJystichum aculeatum, but from Ray downwards it has been admitted as a distinct species by many autborities. Bay in his Synopsis Stirpium Britan- nicarum describes it as Fili-x aculeata major, pinnulis nurictdatis crebioribus,foliis integris rtngustioribus (larger prickly Fern, with closer and eared leafits, and witb the whole fronds narrower). Sir J. E. Smith, after quoting this description, adds, " Ray has well marked the dif- ferences between P. aculeatum and -P. lobatum." Mr. Francis sums up the distinctions very eft'ectively as follows : " This species is distinguished from aciihalum, for which alone it can be taken, by the decnrrem lobes ; and as Sir J. E. Smith very rightly observes, ' by the much shorter, more crowded, and less scaly pinnse (leaflets).' Added to which the pinnules (leafits) are more entire, being but slightly eared, very convex, thick, and of a glaucous colour, furnished with a less number of, and smaller, bristly serratnres, sometimes wanting them entirely at the sides. The sori also are more confined to the top of the leaf, and larger than in aculeatum. The variety lonchitldoides is not very scaly, and in form and size exactly intermediate between this species and loiichitis" It is the Polypodium lobatum of Hudson, and the Polypodium lonchitldoides of some other botanists. In English it was called by Ray Prickly Male Fern with narrower leaves, and by others Close-derived Prickly Shield Fern. POLY'STICHUM LOBA'TCM. POLYSTICHUM LOBATUM. 245 Main root large, tufted. Fronds evergreen, produced in a circle, from one foot to two feet high, stiff, narrow spear-head shaped in their general outline, milky green in colour, and surface very shining. Stem strong, very scaly, and leafleted almost to the base. Leaflets alter- nate, short, very gradually decreasing in length as they approach the top of the stem, curved upwards ; so close together near the bottom of the stem as to overlap each other. Leafits pointed egg-shaped, at their base run- ning much into each other; slightly saw-toothed; only the larger ones eared, and that but slightly ; that next the stem, on the upper side of the leaflet, so broad as to overlap that next to it, and so long as to partly cover the under leafit on the Iea6et next above it. Fructification only at the top of the frond; the masses somewhat -ir- regular in size, borne by the lowest branch of the side- veins, circular, with a cover depressed in the centre. It is found on shady hedge-banks, and is more common than P. aculeatum, which is some evidence that it is not a variety of that species. We extract from Mr. Francis's " Analysis of British Ferns " the following list of the places where it is found : " Extremely common in Scotland and in the north of England, gradually losing itself towards the south, and becoming more and more intermingled with aculeatum, which in its turn is superseded still more southerly by ungu- lare. In the middle and south of England its recorded habitats are Leicestershire ; common about Settle, Yorkshire ; Pottery Car, near Doncaster ; Matlock, Derbyshire ; at Stud- ley, Sambourne, Overley, and Weatherly, Warwickshire ; 246 POLYSTICHUM LOBATUM. Lane leading to the Vach6 from Chalfont, Bucks ; near Bristol; near Dorking, Surrey; in Hants, &c. ; near Yar- mouth; Sussex and S. Kent. Wales near Wrexham, Den- bighshire. Ireland Colin Glen, near Belfast ; Hermitage, County Wicklow ; County of Derry. Glen Fee, Clova Moun- tains ; Braid Woods, near Edinburgh." It is even hardier than P. aculeatum and P. angulnre, and may be cultivated like them in every particular. POLY'STICHUM LONCHI'TIS. POLYSTICHUM LONCHITIS. 249 / POLY'STICHUM LONCHI'TIS. Tars Fern has been included by some modern botanists in the genus Aspidium, and by others in Polypodiiim. By the older botanists it was called Lonchitis, which has always since been retained as the specific name, and is appropriate, loychitis, in Greek, signifying "resembling a spear," which is applicable to its leaves. In English it is known as the Holly Fern, being evergreen, dark- coloured, leathery, and prickly, Rough Alpine Shield Fern, Royal Polypody, Great Spleenwort, and Spleen- wort Polypody. Its root is tufted, large, coarse, scaly, black, and having numerous fibrous rootlets. Fronds in a circle round the crown of the root, and leaning outwards in a cup-like arrangement, varying from six inches to fifteen or more inches in height, narrow spear-head shaped in their general outline, stiff and harsh, colour very deep glossy green. Stem furrowed in front, clothed for three- quarters of its length with leaflets, and the unleafleted part covered with broad, large, tapering, dark brown scales. Leaflets crowded, so as to overlap the one next below, short-stalked, about three-quarters of an inch long, alternate, smooth on the upper surface, rather scaly on the under surface, pointed egg-shaped, but rendered irregular by a lobe near the base on the upper side, saw-edged, the teeth being irregular and fringed with sharp bristles. The mid-vein of each leaflet straight, with alternate aide-veins, these being 250 POLYSTICHUM LONCITITIS. also branched. The fructification is borne by the lowest upper branch of each side-vein, forming a row of masses pretty close to, and on each side of, the mid-vein. The lobe of the leaflet has a small raid-vein of its own, and masses of fructification are on each side of it. The fructification rarely occurs except upon the upper leaflets of the fronds. The cover (indusium) of each mass is circular, fixed by the centre, notched on one side, and separating all round as the sori, which are light brown, increase in size. This species is rare, and found only in mountainous districts in the north of the British Islands. Its favourite haunts are the clefts of rocks near the mountain tops. In England it has been found about the upper part of the Tees ; near Settle, in Yorkshire ; on Swarth Fell, near Ulleswater, and other parts of Cumberland. In Wales, at Clogwyn-y-Garnedh, Snowdon ; and on Glyder, near Llanberris. In Scotland, very common in the Highland valleys and exposed mountain sides. On the Bredalbane Mountains, Perthshire, at an elevation of about 3,000 feet ; Craig Chailleach, Perthshire ; Clova Mountains, and Glen Isla, Forfarshire ; on Ben Lawers, and Falcon Glints, near Chaldron Spout, Teesdale ; Aberdeensbire, Moray, and Ross-shire; base of Benmore, Sutherland; on Ben Lomond ; and in Glen Phee. In Ireland, on Bandon Mountains; in a glen east of Lough Eske, Donegal ; and on Glenade Mountain, Lei trim. Polystichum lonchitis was not known as a British POLYSTICHUM LONCHITIS. 251 Fern when Ray published, in 1670, his Catalogus Plan- tarum Anglice, nor when his Historia Plantarum issued from the press, in 1686, but it bad been discovered by Mr. Lloyd between that year and 1696, when Ray mentions it in the second edition of his Synopsis Stir- pium Britannicarum. He adopted the name of Lon- chitis aspera major, or " larger rough Sjdeeuwort with indented leaves." He says, " It issues from clefts in the rocks on the tops of the mountains of Wales, as at Clogwyn - y - Garnedh - y - Grib - Goch - Trygvylchan (D. Lhwyd)." Mr. W. Reeve observes that it is a very ornamental little plant when it can be cultivated successfully. He grew it in a cool house, where it was constantly shaded, and upon a damp bottom, with great success. He employed a compost of sandy loam and peat in equal parts, with a liberal admixture of sharp sand. It may be cultivated upon the rockery, but great care is necessary, it being a very shy plant to establish itself in dry, exposed situations. A shady part of the rockery must be selected, where it can be kept damp ; but it will not bear stagnant moisture. It must be planted firmly in the compost above-mentioned as early in the spring as possible ; and if a hand or bell-glass can be kept over it for a short time all the better, as this will keep the soil moist about it for some time without the application of much water. Give a little air occasionally. It will thrive remarkably well in a greenhouse, and Mr. Reeve had it produce fertile fronds abundantly in a stove temperature. It is difficult to increase except by 252 POLYSTICHUM LOKCHITIS. the seed, which should be sown as soon as ripe, and treated in the same manner as directed for other Ferns. A cold pit will meet its requirements during the winter months, and in the summer also if kept shaded and damp. PTE'RIS AQUILT'NA. PTERIS AQUILINA. 255 PTE'RTS AQUTLT'NA. WITH but two exceptions all modern botanists have described tbis very common Fern under the above names. Mr. Newman alone has called it Eitpteris, and Mr. Bernbardt considers it an Asplenium, but both still retaining the specific name (tqiiilina. This specific name was given by Linnaeus because, when a slanting cut is made through the body of the main root, the surfaces represent in their woody tissue a figure somewhat re- sembling a spread or displayed eagle. In English it has been called Brakes, Female Fern, Braken, Eagle Fern. Root creeping, widely extending, brown and downy when young, smooth and black when old. Rootlets fibrous and downy. Fronds produced singly along the root, upright, and from one to eight feet high. In one instance it was found thirteen feet high. Stem half its length without branches, angular, pale yellowish green, but purplish at the lower part, stiff, branched. Branches horizontal, spreading, with smooth stalks, the primary branches nearly alternate, and the next more decidedly alternate, the leafy portion deeply cut into close, spear- head-shaped, bluntish, convex, opposite segments, the end one usually much the largest, all smooth, and of a light, bright green colour on the upper surface, but paler and hairy underneath ; edges of the segments brownish, rolled back, and wavy, inclosing the fructifi- cation. There is a mid- vein in each segment, and this 256 PTERIS AQUILINA. mid-vein produces side-veins in opposite pairs, which are variously branched ; these branches unite at the edge of the segment, and where they unite is the fructification. This is in a continued line, the masses of spores being covered with a whitish membrane, which seems to be au extension of the outer skin c f the leafy segment. This Fern is variously modifie Vy the situation in which it grows ; its segments are sometimes quite entire- edged, and this variation has been called integerrima. In another variation the edges of the segments are excessively curled or crisped. This, however, differs from the Pteris crispa of some botanists, which we have described as Allosorus crispus. It is useless to particularise the localities of this Fern, for it is found on barren heaths and in woods wherever the soil is a siliceous sand. It is much rarer in districts where chalk abounds. Turner, writing of this Fern in 1562, says in the second part of his " Herbal," " Not onlye the opinion of the commen people is that the Feme hath sede, but also it is the opinion of a Christen Physicion, named Hieronymus Tragus, who doth not onlye saye that Ferns hath sede, but wrytith that he founde upon myd- somer even sede upon Brakes. I have taken onte of his herball his wordes concernynge that matter, and have translated that into Englishe after this maner followinge. Although that all they that have written of herbes have aftyrmed and holden that the Brake hath nether sede nor frute, yet have I dy vers tymes proved the contrarye, whictie thinge I will here testefye I have foure yeres PTERIS AQUILINA. 257 together, one after an other, upon the vigill of Saynt Johne the Baptiste (which we call in Englishe myd- somer even), sough te for this seede of Brakes upon the nyghte, and in dede I fownde it earlye in the mornynge before the daye brake; the sede was small, blacke, and lyke unto Poppye. I gathered it after this maner: I laide shetes and wollen leaves underneath the Brakes, which receyved the sede that was by shakynge and beatynge broughte oute of the branches and leaves. Manye Brakes in some places had no sede at all, but in other places agayne a man shall fynde sede in every Brake. I went aboute this busyness all figures, con- jurynges, saunters, charmes, wytchcrafte, arid sorseryes sett a syde, taking with me two or three honest men to bere me companye. When I soughte this sede all the villagers aboute did shy ve with bousyers, that the people made there." We have more fully narrated the old superstitions relative to "Fern seed" at pp. 158 161. We will now turn to more profitable matter the uses to which Brakes are applied. These are well epitomised by Mr. Lightfoot as follows : " The root is viscid, nauseous, and bitterish, and, like all the rest of the Fern tribe, has a salt mucilaginous taste. It creeps under the ground in some rich soils to the depth of five or six feet, and is very difficult to be destroyed. Frequent mowing in pasture grounds, plentiful dunging in arable lands, but, above all, pouring urine upon it, are the most approved methods of killing it. It has, however, many good qualities to counterbalance the few bad ones. Fern cut while green, and ,left to rot upon the ground, is a good 258 PTEEIS AQUILINA. improver of land ; for its ashes, if burnt, will yield double the quantity of salt that most other vegetables will. " Fern is also an excellent manure for Potatoes ; for, if buried beneath their roots, it never fails to produce a good crop. "Its use as a good litter in the stable and the fold is 'mown to every farmer ; as, also, that it makes a brisk fire, when dried, for the purposes of brewing and baking. "Its astringency is so great that it is used in many places abroad in dressing and preparing kid and chamois leather. " In several places in the North the inhabitants mow it green, and, burning it to ashes, make those ashes up into balls with a little water, which they dry in the sun, and make use of them to wash their linen with instead of soap. " In many of the Western Isles the people gain a very considerable profit from the sale of the ashes to soap and glass makers. " In Glen Ely, in Inverness- shire, and other places, we observed that the people thatched their houses with the stalks of this Fern, and fastened them down with ropes made either of Birch bark or heath. Sometimes they used the whole plant for the same purpose, but that does not make so durable a covering. " Swine are fond of the roots, especially if boiled in their wash. " In some parts of Normandy we read that the poor have been reduced to the miserable necessity of mixing them with their bread ; and in Siberia and some other Northern countries the inhabitants brew them in their ale, mixing one-third of the roots to two-thirds of malt. " The ancients used the root of this Fern, and the whole plant, in decoctions and diet-drinks, in chronic disorders of all kinds, arising from obstructions of the viscera and the PTERIS AQU1LINA. 259 spleen. Some of the moderns have given it a high character in the same intentions ; hut it is rarely used in the present practice. The country people, however, still continue to retain some of its ancient uses, for they give the powder of it to destroy worms, and look upon a hed of the green plant as a sovereign cure for the rickets in children." The ancients were correct in their estimate of the fattening qualities of the Brake, arid it has been proved in modern days. At Nettlecombe, in Somersetshire, it is, or was, customary to gather the young shoots of this Fern, and to simmer them for two hours in water. When cold the liquor forms a strong jelly, and is as effectual as potatoes for pig food. Professor Sprengel recommends all Ferns, and especially the Brake, as a good manure. He says that 10,000 parts of the fresh-gathered, air-dried herbage contain of mineral substances 1,040 parts silica, 433 lime, 152 magnesia, 1,050 potash, 370 soda, 052 alumina, 150 oxide of iron, 036 oxide of manganese, 095 sulphuric acid, 060 phosphoric acid, 259 chlorine = 3,696 of mineral substances. This Fern, he adds, is rendered still more valuable as a manure by its richness in nitrogen. He found that 100 Ibs. of its dry herbage contain 16-lOOths of a pound of nitrogen, and, conse- quently, 3000 Ibs. = 45 Ibs. If cultivated, it must be grown in a deep, sandy soil, and in the shade, or the specimens will not be fine. It should be covered over with leaf mould every winter, for the roots are very liuble to suffer from severe frost. To protect them fun her, and, indeed, for ornament, let the 260 PTERIS AQUILINA. dead fronds remain until the spring. To propagate it, take up the creeping main root early in spring ; have the ground trenched ready, draw drills about two inches deep, lay the roots along the drills thickly, and cover them with the soil. SCOLOPE'NDRIUM YULQA'BB. SCOLOPENDRIUM VULGAUE. 263 I/ SCOLOPE'NDRIUM VULGA'RE. THIS is the Asplenium scolopendrium of Linnaeus, and the Scolopendrium officinalis, S. phyllitis, Phyliitis vul- garis, and P. scolopendrium of some other botanists. It is the Common Hart's Tongue Fern of English herbalists. Root compact, penetrating deeply, tufted, slowly spreading by forming offsets round the crown. Fronds numerous, usually from six to eighteen inches high; but Mr. C. Johnson founds pecimens in the open vault near the great hall of Conway Castle four feet long, and nearly four inches broad. Stem one-third without any leafy development, and this unleafed part is dark purple-coloured and shaggy, with narrow, brown, mem- branous scales ; but sometimes it is smooth. The general outline of the leafy portion is long, narrow, heart-shaped, and pointed, smooth, entire at the edge, but somewhat wavy, bright grass green. The leafed portion of the stem is also covered with scales, but they are smaller ; it puts forth on each side a regular series of three-branched veins, each branch being two-forked, and where the outer forks almost join the outer forks from the next veins there is apparently a single line of fructification throughout their length, but each of these adjoining forks produces fructification, and the masses run together. The fructification occurs only about the upper part of the frond, and is composed of numerous small brown capsules, rising up through a pale brown, 264 SCOLOPENDRIUM VULGARE. membranous cover, which folds over them in their early growth, but in their state of ripeness remains nearly erect on each side. There are eight forms into which the fronds pass, but they so frequently occur with the fronds of the usual form that they can scarcely he considered varieties. I. Polyscliid.es has a scolloped, finely-plaited edge. 2. Crispum has the edge very wavy and curled. 3. Mar- ginatum, with the edge double, or, as it were, with a hem. 4. Hastatum, with a pair of spreading lobes at the base. 5. Lobatum, or rather, furcatum, for the point of the frond is divided into two irregular ends. 6. Multifidum, or many-cleft at the point. 7. Lace- ratum, torn, the whole frond, both at the edges and point, being deeply cut. 8. Mamosum, branched, the stem divided in two, and the points of the twin fronds much lobed and crisped. The Hart's Tongue is one of the commonest of our Ferns, and is to be found almost in every county of the British Islands. It was known to Turner, Gerarde, Bay, and other ancient herbalists as Phyllitis, and even the lobatum variety is described and depicted by Gerarde under the name of Phyllitis multifida. He says he found it " in the garden of Master Cranwich, a chirurgion dwelling at Much-Dunmow, in Essex," " who," he adds, " gave me a plant for my garden." This Fern looks noble by itself, and also forms a very striking object when grown in a collection of pot plants, or on a rockery, from neither of which it should be SCOLOPENDRIUM VDLGARE. 265 absent. It is easily established. It is very distinct from all other British Ferns, and it is, moreover, a plant that will take its place on any part of the Fernery or rockwork, being not so particular as many other Ferns. But, although it bears exposure as well as any of our native species, still greater luxuriance may be obtained by placing it in deep, shady places. It is re- markably well adapted for planting about the shrubbery, wilderness, and such-like places, in clumps accompanied with masses of rock, stone, &c. This and Lastraa ftlix mas look extremely well together in such clumps. Two parts loam, with one part each of leaf mould and peat, will form a suitable compost, with the addition of sand and some finely-broken sandstone, broken pots, or a little old mortar. This Fern requires potting or plant- ing rather firmly, a good drainage, and a moderate supply of water. It will bear any temperature from the severest winter frosts to the temperature of a stove, in which it thrives remarkably well. It may be pro- pagated either by division or by seed, in the same way as directed for former species. 266 TBICHOMANES BREVISETUM. TRICHO'MANES BREVISETUM. THIS has been commonly included in the genus Tri- chomanes, but with the various specific names of ra- dicans, speciosum, Europaum, alatum, pyxidiferum, Tun- bridgense, var. 3, and Andrewsii. By a few botanists it has been called Hymenophyllum alatum, Hymenopliyllum Tunbridgense, /3, and Didymoglossum alatum. In English it is known as the Short-styled Bristle Fern, and Gup- Ooldy-locTcs Root very thick, cylindrical, creeping, black, densely hairy, with numerous stout, scattered, branched, ver- tical rootlets. Fronds issuing singly, irregularly, from ^the upper side of the root; erect, from five to twelve inches high, dark, transparent green, narrow egg-shaped in general outline. Stem winged, and from one-fourth to one-half bare of leaflets. Leaflets with two leafits at their base, and their upper portion irregularly but alternately lobed. Both leafits and lobes cut into deep, blunt segments. A few of the upper segments end in a single, imbedded, oblong, cylindrical cup, continued from the leaf, slightly winged at the sides. Fructifi- cation round the bottom of a little column in that cup. This very rare Fern is found in watery places, and on wet rocks. In England it has been found at the head of Elm Crag Well, at Belbank, half a mile from Bingley, York- shire. TRIOUO'MANES BBEVISE'TCM. TRICHOMANES BREVISETUM. 269 We are not aware that it has been found either in Wales or Scotland. In Ireland it is more common, being found at Powers- court Waterfall and various parts of Kerry ; on shady banks and rocks exposed to the spray of the waterfall above Turk Cottage, Killarney, growing with the equally rare Jungermannia Hutchinsia ; Hermitage, in the county of Wicklow ; Ballinhasy Glen, near Cork ; and Glendine, near Youghal. It is first mentioned as a British Fern by Dillenius in the third edition of Ray's Synopsis, published in 1724. He states that it was found by Mr. Richardson at Bel- bank, and it has been found there since. The copper plates given by Dillenius establish the identity beyond any doubt, even if his description were not sufficient for doing so. Filix humilis repens, foliis pellucidis et splendentibus, caule alato (Dwarf Creeping Fern, with transparent and shining leaves, and with winged stem). This Fern, Mr. W. Reeve informs us, is one of the more delicate of the British Ferns. When successfully grown it is one of the most interesting of the smaller species. It is useless to attempt to cultivate it upon an exposed situation, it being so partial to a close, calm, moist, and warm atmosphere, and when once dislodged from its native place it is very difficult to establish it otherwise than with these conditions. It may be suc- cessfully grown in a pot by first filling a middling-sized pot one-third full of finely-broken potsherds or sandstone, putting upon this a layer a little finer, and filling the remaining space with a compost of fine loam, silver 270 TRICHOMANES BBEVISETUM. sand, and finely-powdered sandstone in equal parts. This is to be pressed firmly together, and then the cauder or main root very carefully arranged upon the surface, fixing it by means of a few very small hooked pegs the smaller in size and quantity the better. Then strew a little sand and powdered stone over the surface, just enough to cover and settle the roots. This being done, the whole is to receive a liberal watering from a very fine-rosed watering-pot, and left for a short time to settle. Place the pot in a saucer, the top of which is to be below the level of the top of the first layer of stone in the pot. This saucer is to be kept full of water, with a bell-glass turned over the pot, and to rest in the saucer of water. Place the whole in a warm green- house or stove, and by keeping the saucer filled with water success may be relied upon. Similar directions may be followed for cultivating this Fern upon a larger scale. Be careful always to keep the atmosphere moist and warm, which moisture will be secured by keeping the pan full of water. This Fern may be increased by division, although very shy of this process, and also by its seed, or fructification, which is, perhaps, the best mode, although this Fern is very delicate and tender in a young state. WOO'DSIA HYPEBBO'KEA. WOODSIA HYPERBOREA. 273 WOO'DSIA HYPERBO'EEA. THIS has beeu called Acrostichum alpinum, Ceterach alpinum, Polypodium hyperboreum, P. Arvonicum, and Woodsia alpina. By some botanists it is considered merely a variety of Woodsia Ilvensis. In English it is known as the Alpine Woodsia, Rounded- leaved Woodsia, and Hairy Polypody. Its roots are fibrous, very deeply penetrating, black, and tufted. Fronds narrow spear-head shaped in their general outline ; the lower third of each stem is without leaflets, but having a few hairs and light brown chaffy scales. The stem is united to the root by a joint, from which it falls off when the frond decays in autumn. Leaflets in pairs, quite or nearly opposite, smooth, tri- angular in their general outline, but with the angles rounded; deeply lobed and scolloped; mid-vein not strongly marked, and its side-veins are simple or only two-forked, reaching nearly to the edge of the lobes, and not far from the end of these side-veins is the fructi- fication. This consists of from six to ten circular masses on each leaflet; they are large, light brown, and usually increase in size until they run together. The cover (indusium) of each mass is divided into such numerous segments that the fructification seems imbedded in hairs. This appears fully in our woodcut of Woodsia Ilvensis. In England and Ireland this very rare Fern has never been found. In Wales it has been discovered at Clogwyn-y- 274 WOODSIA HYPERBOKEA. Garnedh and Moel Sichog, on Snowdon, at an elevation of not less than 2,500 feet. It is said to have grown on Glydr Fawr, Caernarvonshire, but recently it has been sought for there without success. In Scotland it occurs on Ben Lawers, Ben Chowzie, and the Clova Mountains ; at Craig Chailleach and Mael Ghyrdy, in Perthshire; and in Glen Fiadh, in Forfarshire. We think it probable that this Fern is the Filix Cale- donica mentioned in 1704 by Ray, in the third volume of his Historia Plantarum, as being in the museum of Mr. Petiver. Whether this be so or not, Bay mentions it in the second edition of his Synopsis Stirpium Bri- tannicarum, published in 1696, where it is described by Mr. Lhwyd, its discoverer, as Filix alpina pedicularis rubra foliis gubtus villosis (Alpine Fern, with red- rattle leaves hairy underneath). It was described and engraved during the same year in Plukenet's Alma- (jestum Botanicum, 150, t. 89, /. 8. Mr. Lhwyd says he never saw it except on wet, lofty rocks called Clogwyn-y- Garnedh, near the top of Snowdon, and that it is rare even there. It springs there from the edges of the rocks, not erect, but somewhat reclining. Dr. Richardson adds, in the third edition of the same Synopsis, that " it grows on a moist, black rock almost at the top of Clogwyn-y-Garnedh, facing north-west, directly above the lower lake." We give the cultivation of Woodsia Ilvensis, and the Woodsia hyperborea requires similar treatment. WOO'DSIA ILVE'NSIS. WOODSIA ILVENSIS. 277 WOO'DSIA ILVE'NSIS. THIS Fern has been included by various botanists in the genera Acrostichum, Lonchitis, and P oly podium ; but they have uniformly retained the specific name flvensis, which is one of the illustrations of the absurdity of naming a plant after the country where it was first found. Ilvensis, or Elban, refers to the Isle of Elba, where it was originally discovered ; but since then it has been found in Britain, all over Germany, the Alps, the Pyrenees, Siberia, and even Greenland. The true render- ing of the botanical name, then, is the Elban Woodsia ; but it has also been called Oblong Woodsia, Hairy Woodsia, Downy Hair Fern, and Opposite-leaved Poly- pody. .Root* tufted, numerous, long, smooth, blackish, fibrous. Fronds several, in a tuft or group, erect, spear-head shaped in general outline, from two to five inches high. Stem pale brown, slightly scaly, very elastic and wiry, about one-fourth without leaflets, and jointed at a short distance from the roots. At that joint it falls off when decayed. Leaflets stalkless, egg-shaped, bluntly-pointed, deeply cut into segments, somewhat wavy, and rolled back at the edge; opposite at the lowest part of the frond, but alternate at the top; upper surface milky green, smooth, but sprinkled over with a few hairs or slender scales; under surface densely covered with similarly fine, glossy scales and jointed hairs, and nearly covered with fructification. Fructification in round, 278 WOODSIA ILVENSIS. convex masses, variously placed at the points of the very irregular and indistinct veins; the masses are separated whilst young, but soon become crowded. The sort are on a small, membranous, roundish cover, of which the edge is fringed with very long, taper, jointed, hair-like segments. This, one of the rarest of our Ferns, is found only on the highest and bleakest of our mountains It has not been found in Ireland. In England only on Falcon Glints, Teesdale, Durham. In Wales, at Glyder-vawr, near Lyn-y-cwm, and Clog- wyn-y-Garnedh, Snowdon. In Scotland, between Glen Dole and Glen Phee, in the Clova Mountains, Forfarshire, at an elevation of between 1,600 and 1,700 feet. Mr. W. Reeve states that the two Woodsias require the same treatment, and are cultivated chiefly for their minute beauty, being so small that they will be almost lost upon a rockery or Fernery of any size. They are, however, well adapted for cultivating upon small Fern- eries, with such companions as Asplenium trichomanes, Allosorus crispus, the Asplenium ruta-muraria, and others. They may be cultivated, also, in pots successfully. They require a very open soil, composed of equal parts turfy peat and light loam, with a very free admixture of finely-broken charcoal, sandstone, and silver sand ; the pots to be one-third filled with finely-broken crocks or sandstone; upon this is to be put a little sphagnum or fibry parts of the peat, and the remainder to be filled with the above compost, placing the little plant WOODSIA ILVEX8IS. 279 ia it as you approach towards the top, keeping the crown of the plant above the pot's rim, and round it placing a few small stones. Great care must be exercised so that the plants do not become water-logged, for this is almost sure death to them, they disliking nothing more than stagnated moisture. What moisture is given is best given by means of placing the pots in a saucer of water for a few minutes. When the moisture is seen rising through the surface remove the saucer, and set the plants again to drain. The same directions may be followed in pi anting these Ferns in a rockery or Fernery, placing the pieces of rock or stone firmly round the base of the plant, so as to keep the soil firm to the roots. The plants may be increased by division, which will require great care and nicety. They may also be increased by the fruc- tification. They succeed remarkably well in the close, warm temperature of a stove.'but will do quite as well, and perhaps better, in a greenhouse. INDEX. N.B. Those names not in capitals are synonymee and English names. Acrostichum alpinum, 273 Ilvensis, 277 ,, leptophyllum, 127 spicant, 82 ,, thelypteris, 185 Adder's Tongue, 188 Adiantum album, 68 ,, CAPILLDS VENEBIS, 9 ALLOSOBUS CBISPCS, 15 Alpine Bladder Fern, 96 Polypody, 202 Woodsia, 2/3 Angular-leaved Shield Fern, 239 Prickly Shield Fern, 239 Anogramma leptophylla, 127 Arrangement of Ferns, i Aspidium aculeatum, 233, 239 angulare, 239 ,, crist a turn, 140 dilatatum, 146, far. con- cavum, 162 dentatum, 108 dumetorum, 187 fragile, 105, 116 , fragrans, 175 filiz-mas, 152 ,, lonchitis, 249 ,, montanum, 123 ,, odoriferum, 169 ,, oreopteris, 169 ,, recurrum, 162 Rhaeticum, 105 ,, ricidum, 175 spinulosum, 146, 1/5, 178, ar. 162 ,, thelypteris, 185 ASPLEMICM ADIANTUM NIGBUM, 21 ,, alternifolium. 33 ,, aquilinum, 255 ASPLBNIUM ceterach, 95 ,, of Dioscorides, 93 FONTANUM, 27 GBBMANICUM, 33 LA.NCKOLATL M, 36 ,, leptophyllum, 127 ,, MAUIM'M, 42 RUTA-MtJBABIA, 48 scolopendrium, 263 SEPTEXTRIONALE, 5 spicant, 83 trapeziforme, 47 TRIC IIOMA.VES, 58 VIBIDE, 94 ATIIYRIUM PILIX-FCEMINA, 70, 205 thelypteris, 185 Black Maiden-hair, 21 B LECH N DM BORKALE, 79 ,, spicant, 81 BoTRYCHIUM LUNABIA, 85 Braken, 255 Brakes, 255 ; their uses, 257 Brittle Bladder Fern, 116 Polypody, 116 Broad sharp-toothed Shield Fern 146 ., prickly - toothed Buckler Fern, 146 ,, Priokly Fern, 146 Buckler Fern (Common), 163 Capillaire, to make, 12 Ceterach alpinum, 273 OFPICIKABUM, 91 Close-leaved Prickly Male Fern, 242 Cluster Lunary, 86 Moonwo.t, 86 Creeping Water Fern, 186 Crested Fern, 140 U 282 Crested Polypody, 140 Shield Fern, 140 Crisped Fern, 15 Ctenopteris vulgaris, 224 Cup Goldy-locks, 266 Curled Fern, 15 Cyathea dentata, 108 fragilis, 105, 116 ,, montana, 123 ,, regia, 96 Cystea angustata, 107 ,, dentata, 108 CYSTOPTERIS ALPINA, 96 ANGUSTATA, 105 ,, DENTATA, 108 ,, DlCKIEANA, 112 fragilis, var. angus- tata, 105 FRAGILIS, 116 MOHTANA, 123 myrrhidifolia, 123 Darea Tunbridgensis minor, 133 Deep-cut Mountain Bladder Fern, 105 Didymoglossum alatum. 266 Dilated Shield Fern, 146 Downy Hair Fern, 277 Drooping Lady Fern, 70 Dryopteris Candida, 40 ,, Tragi, 2U9 ,, filix-mas, 152 Dwarf Sea Fern, 42 Eagle's Fern, 255 English Maiden -li air, 58 Black Maiden-hair, 58 Polypody, 228 Eupteris aquilina, 255 Female Fern, 255 ,, Dwarf Stone Fern, 42 ,, Shield Fern, 70 ,, Polypody, 70 Ferns defined, Hi., 2 their uses, 257 ,, parts described, 3 Fern Seed, superstitions concern- ing, 158, 256 Filiculapetrrea-mas, 106 Fills Caledonica, 2/4 ,, Lonchitidi affinis, 240 ,, mas ramosa pinuulis dentatis, 143 ,, saxiitilis caule tenui fragile, 120 saxatiiis Tragi, Filmy-leaved Fern, 130 Flowering Fern. 197 Forked Spleenwort, 55 ,, Maiden-hair, 56 Fox Fern, 81 Grammitis ceterach, 95 leptophylla, 127 Great Spleenwort, 79, 249 Shield Fern, 146 ,, Spleenwort, 64 ribbed Spleenwort, 64 Green Maiden-hair Spleenwort, 64 Gymnocarpium Robertianum, 209 ,, dryopteris, 213 phegopteris, 219 GTMNOGRAMMA LEPTOPHYLLA, 127 Gymnopteris ceterach, 95 Hairy Polypody, 273 Hart's Tongue Fern, 263 ,, Woodsia, 2/7 Hay-scented Buckler Fern, 162 Heath Fern, 169 Shield Fern, 169 Polypody, 169 Hemestheum montanum, 169 ,, thelypteris, 185 Holly Kern, 249 Horned Moss, 56 ,, Maiden-hair, 56 Hymenophyllum alatum.Tunbridg- ense , 266 ,, TUNBRIDGENSE, 94, 130 ,, unilaterale, 136 WILSONI, 136 Knagged Moss, 56 Laciniated Bladder Fern, 96 Lady Fern, 70 Lanceolate Spleenwort, 36 LASTRJEA CRISTATA, 140 ,, calcarea, 209 ,, dentata var. linearis, 178 ,, DILATATA, 146 ,, dryopteris, 213 ,, FILIX-MAS, 152 KIEN1S1.CII, l6l ,, montana, 169 ,, multiflora, 146 ,, OKEOPTERIS, 164 ,, phegopteris, 219 BIGIDA, 175 283 LASTR.EA Robertiana, 209 ,, spinosa, 1/8 ,, SPINULOSA, 1?8 ,, THELYPTEEIS, 185 Lesser Crested Polypody, 178 Limestone Polypody, 209 Lomaria spicant, 81 Lonchitis, 249 ,, Ilvensis, 277 Lophodium caJlipteris, 140 collinum, 1S7 ,, fcenisecii, 162 glandulosum, 187 multiflorum, 141) ,, rigidum, 1/5 ,, sriinosum, 1/8 ,, uliginosum, 187 Lunary, Small, 85 Maiden-hair, 9 Spleenwort(Common), 58 Male Fern, 152 Polypody, .152 ,, Shield Field, 152 Marsh Shield Fern, 185 Fern, 185 Polypody, 185 Martagon, 86 Miltwaste, 91 Moonwort, Common, 85 Mountain Bladder Fern, 12.% Fern, 169 Kuckler Fern, 169 Parsley, 15 ,, Polypody, 219 Muscus corniculatue, Mi Naked Stone Fern, 56 Narrow Prickly-toothed Fern, 178 Northern Hard Fern, 79 Notolepeum ceterach, 95 Oak Fern, 21, 228 Oblong Woodsia, 2/7 Ophioglossum Lusitanicum, 102 ovatum, 188 ,, VULGATCM, 188 Opposite-leaved Polypody, 277 Osmund Bald-pate. 40 ,. Royal. 197 ,, the Waterman, 157 OSMUKDA RKGALIS, 19" spicant. 81 leptophylla, 127 Pale Mountain Polypody, 219 Parsley Fern, J5 Phegopteris calcarea, 209 dryopteris, 213 Phyllitis vulgaris, 263 ,, scolupendrium, 263 multitida, 264 Pilled Osmund, 40 Polypodium aculeatum, 233 ,. album, 116 ALPESTRK, 203 arUtatum, 146 Arvonicum, 273 ,, calypteris, 140 CALCAREUM, 206 ., cristatum, 140, 146, 1/8 dentatum, 108, 178 ,, dilatatum, 146 DRYOPTERIS, 213 ,, filix-inas, 152 ,, filix-f<rmina ear. spi- nosa, 178 fragile, 116 fragrans, 169 hyperboreum, 273 Ilvense, 105 ,, Ilvensis, 2/7 leptophyllura, 127 ,, lobatum,242 lonchitis, 249 ,, lonchitidoides, 242 ,, montanum, 123 ,, montanum, 169 myrrhidifolium, 123 oreopteris, 169 PIIEGOPTEEIS, 219 regium, 96 rigidum, 175 ,, Rliwticum, 105,202 Robertianum, 209 ,, spinosum, 178 spinulosum, 178 thelypteris, 169, 185 VULGAKR, 224 Polypody (Common), 224 ' f the Oak, 224 POLYSTICHUM ACULEATUM, 23J ANGULARE, 239 ,, cristatum, 140 dryopteris, 213 ,, filix-max, 152 LOBATUM, 242 LONCHITIS, 249 ,,. montanum, 169 ,, multiflorum. 146 ,, phegopteris, 219 ,, rigidum, 175 284 Polystichum strigosum, 175 spinosum, 178 ,, tbelypteris, 185 Prickly Male Fern with narrower leaves, 242 Shield Fern, 178 (Common), 233 toothed Shield Fern, 178 Probewort, 52 Pseudathyrium alpestre, 202 PTBBIS AQCILINA. 255 crispa, 256 Recurved Prickly-toothed Fern, 162 Red-stemmed Polypody, 105 Rigid Buckler Fern, 175 Shield Fem, 175 Lastraea, 175 three - branched Polypody, 209 Rock Polypody, 27 Rough Alpine Shield Fem, 249 ,, Spleenwort, 79, 91 Miltwaste, 79 Round-leaved Woodsia, 273 Royal Fern, 197 ,, Brackens, 197 ,, Moonwort, 197 Polypody, 249 Rue-leaved Spleenwort, 48 ,, Maiden-hair, 61 Saint Christopher's Herb, 197 Salvia vitae, 52 Scale Fern, 91 Scaly Hart's Tongue, 91 ,, Spleenwort, 91 Scolopendrium ceterach, 95 ,, officinalis, 263 ,, phyllitis, 263 ,, VULGABE, 263 Sea Spleenwort, 42 Sea Maiden-hair, 42 Short-styled Bristle Fern, 266 Slender-stemmed Polypody, 27 Smith's Fern, 209 Smooth Rock Spleenwort, 27 Soft Prickly Shield Fern, 239 Spear-shaped Spleenwort, 36 Spleenwort Polypody, 249 Stone Brakes, 15 ,, Polypody, 105 ., Rue, 51 Sun Fern, 219 Superstitions relative to Fem, 1 58 Tentwort, 48 Three-branched Polypody, 213 , cleft Polvpody, 96 Toothed Bladder Fern, 108 ,, Polypody, 108 TKICHOMANES BREVISETDM, 266 ,, famina, 68 ,, ramosum, 68 Trichomanes radicans, speciosum, Europseum, alatum, pyxidiferum, Tunbridgense var. J3j and An- drewi-ii, 266 Tunbridge Fern, 130 Wall Fern, 224 Rue, 48 ,, Spleenwort (Common), 58 Water Fern, 197 White Oak Fern, 36 ,, Spleenwort, 48 Wild Spleenwort, 79 Wilson's Bladder Fern, 123 Woodsia alpina, 273 ,, HYFBRBOBEA, 273 ,, ILVENSIS, 2/7 Worms, a remedy for intestinal, 156 Hugh Barclay, Printer. Winchester. ' ' . ' c 1 ^ . ^ u, J/S- UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000048018 6