EXTRACT FROM A LETTER BY MR. H, REEKS. 65 
On the Varieties of Aspidium angulare and aculeatum. Extract 
from a letter to the Secretary by H. Retks, Esq., F.L.S. 
[Read March 16, 1871.] 
North End, East Woodhay, Newbury, 
March 14, 1871. 
Dear Sir,—I have sent for exhibition a small series of the com- 
mon Aspidium, from that of the simple Lonchitis-like form to 
that of the more highly developed “subtripinnatum.”” With the 
exception of one or two specimens at the end of the series, 
which are more intimately connected with the form called angu- 
lare, all the fronds are fully fructified, at any rate sufficiently so 
to reproduce their respective forms from seed. I have com- 
menced the series with the lowest, or least-developed forms of acu- 
leatum, and traced them up to that having perfectly stalked pin- 
nules—a form not generally described by British botanists, unless 
1t be included under the term angulare, from which it can scarcely 
be distinguished, except by its rigid growth and leathery tex- 
ture, which, however, is scarcely appreciable in the dried and 
gummed-down specimen. I have therefore, this morning, ga- 
thered two specimens of each form, growing side by side—acu- 
leatum with stalked pinnules, and angulare in its normal state. 
The whole of the forms, with hundreds of others intermediate, 
grow in almost every lane in this parish (East Woodhay); and 
all those sent were gathered within the space of about 100 yards. 
My experience here (and 1 have rarely met with any localit y 
more favourable for the study of our common Aspidia) is, that 
it is very unusual to meet with what may be termed a luxuriant 
specimen of angulare which has not at least the first upper 
pinnule more or less subdivided, although this is not mentioned 
by Dr. Hooker in his *Student's Flora, except under A. acu- 
leatum, Sw., which, Dr. Hooker says (evidently alluding to 4. 
angulare), is “2-3-pinnate ;” this latter is never the case with 
A. aculeatum, which, in its most highly developed state, ¿. e. with 
stalked pinnules, has only the inner and, sometimes, outer edge 
of the first upper pinnule spinulose-serrate. 
LINN. JOURN.— BOTANY, VOL. XIII. E 
