THE ALPINE SHIELD FERN 
overlapping on the upper part of tho frond, Chough distinct and some Кө ы 
р а 
moreover, very shortly stalked or ово, ancoolatefalente, from three-quarters > e 
;oint, and an acuto auricle at the base о 
and a quarter in length in the widest part, having an acute p 
the anterior side, the base on the posterior ТТ 1 or rounded off in all the uppe 
lowest ones. The margin 
pinnas but-often produced into a posterior auricle in the low т 
mediate teeth 
specimens from Wales, whe 
rratûres tipped by bristle-like processes, with minute int 
Venation generally indistinet, but often more conspicuous in 
to the apex of the pinna 
which extends to the apex of 
seems more lax. There is a mideein extendi and diverging f 
very point where it enters the pinna, is a principal branch or гей, 
auricle ; this branch is pinnately-forked on the same plan as the midvein, but on а smak 
saab of iho тады са adel ida tho питала аге panna iy Oriol, СФ Shey ее лкд, bub the bronces 
aco so plac that at each ramifintion the vein seems to hare separated into two nearly equal and bu 
slightly diverging parta, In averago specimens there are three or four of those ramifications to each 
vein near the baso of the pinna, then two, and finally ono in those-near the apex. The senulos and 
inlets aro lost in the substance of the frond just within the margin, one being directed 
marginal tooth, In smaller specimens the number of ramifications in the veins is fewer 
back of the frond, and usually confined to the upper half, though sometimes 
ach side the midvein, halfway betw 
Feuctification on th 
extending lower down, Sori round, indusiate, forming a line on 
it and the margin, and also in a similar way a lino on each side the principal vein extending into th 
auricle ; they are of variable size, but often largo and erowded, and then generally become confluent in 
age ; they are attached to the anterior branch of each fasciele of veins, and are medial, seated nearer t 
its base than its apex. Zndusium, or cover to thy mbranaceons, orbicular, umbilicato 
and peltate, or attached to the receptacle by a short central stalk. Spor umerous, globose 
stalked, deep brown. Spores small, round or oblong, muriculate 
Duration. "The caudex is perennial, and the plant evergreen, the fronds, which appear 
in spring, attaining their maturity by the autumn, and remaining in full vigour through th 
onwards 
This plant may be taken as the type of Polystichum, a genus established by Roth several years y 
to the publication of Aspidium, which has too long and too generally been allowed to superse 
is also the type of Polystichum in the restricted sense proposed by Schott, whose views we adopt 
It is known fron weloped states of the cognate species by its being simply pinnate, but 
imperfect and debilitated forms of them which sometimes occur are only pinnate, and from th 
distinguishable with difficulty, The rigidity of texture, the strongly spinous margin, and the tendency to 
imbrication in the pinn, offer the rendiest marks of distinction from these anomalous congeners. 
1. oleada: tis baa tho Monda divided al the ар. П.М probably aho t bo consider 
2. proliferum: this form produces small bbs In tho axils of tho lnwernóet pinnis, and th 
produce young plants when the fronds drop from decay 
The cultivation of P. Lonehitis will be noticed under that of the followin 
