PRICKLY-TOOTHED BUCKLER FERN 
THE NARROW 
Jes are most numerous. near the base, 
appressed ; the scales are 
which many become at length more or 
4, scarocly at all scaly, palo green, smooth. 
s simply circinate, but in other cases 
Rachie 
Vernation eireinate ; sometimes in this plant th 
rudis 
besides the ordinary involution, there is also a lateral curvature ; tho pinna» and pinnules aro all separately 
Frond from two to four or five feet in he 
йите numerous, opposi 
lanceolate tapering at the apex, bipinnate 
ко; the lower ones distant, obliquely triangular, from the greater size 
becoming more alternate ab 
ght) about four 
imens, two feet or upwards in he 
spec 
the base, of which latter the posterior pinnules mensure nearly 
inches in length, and three inches ac 
istant and narrower, of an elongate triangular outline, those just 
two inches; the upper ones are less 
1 at the base, 
above the middle, measuring four and a half inches long, and barely two inches b 
arly equal size. ‘The pinnw are stalked, frequently 
where the posterior and anterior pinnules are 
per surface towards the apex of the 
m twisted so as to turn their upp 
more or less drooping, and. 
frond, but this peculiarity is less marked than in the allied Z. cristata and its variety. Pinnules oblong 
mes with a short stalk-like attachment, the upper more or less 
cute, broadest at the base, the low 
adnate; the basal pinnules (of the pinnæ half-way up the fertile fronds) pinnatifid almost to the 
points are 
s strongly serrated, with spinulose teeth, wh 
midrib, with oblong acute lobes, the I 
x of the lobe, and often curved upwards above the plane of the surface of the. 
obe; the upper pinnules are either inciso-lobate with spinulosely serrate lobes, or coarsely serrate with 
spinuloso teeth. The barren fronds usually, and some of the fertile ones, are broader and more lax in 
nts assume this character 
habit than those above described, and sometimes entire p 
ofa 
£ fertile pinna» near tho centre of the frond,) consi 
Venation of the pinnules (the basal ones 
stout midvein, from which a primary vein extends into each lobe, where it forms a flexuous secondary 
‘on the short anterior fork of which, nearly at its point, and 
midvein, bearing alternate forked ven 
standing just beneath the sinus of the serrature, the sorus is placed, the sori then forming two rows 
along the lobes of the pinnules, In the less divided pinnules at the middle of the pinna, the prim 
o in this case bears the sorus, n 
midvein produces branched reins, and the anterior basal eenule 
to its termination, so that tho sori then form two lines a 
the pinnule itself, This latter being the 
structure of the greater number of pinnules, the general aspect of tho fructification is to form two line 
lengthwise on the pinnule, The venules are directed ono towards each serrature, but terminate before 
reaching it, in a thickened point 
Pructiication on the back of the frond, usually ос 
urring on the upper half, hut sometimes extending 
over the whole surface, Sort numerous, round, indusiate, medial, or subterminal on the anterior basal 
venules, (or on several venules in the deeply pinnatifid basal pinnules) forming a line on each side the 
ually distinct, but often crowded. Zndusinan flat, reniform, membranous, persistent, with a 
tions, but without glands, Spore-cases brown, numerous, 
rotundate. Spores oblong, muriculate 
Duration, The caudex is perennial. The fronds 
nual, the first growth appearing early ін May 
amd others growing up at intervals through the summer; they perish in autumn when exposed, but 
under shelter, though decaying near the base 
of the stipes so as to be unable to sta 
nevertheless retain much of their freshness through the winter; and the extreme by 
we of the stipes 
ты 
stipes, and by the absence of glands from the margin of its indusium, 
plant is known from Z. dilatata, by its creeping eaudex, by the few broad pallid se 
es of its 
"The connecting link between it 
and Z. dilatata is the L. glandulosa of Newman, which latter, as far as our knowledge of it extends, 
has neither the ereeping eaudex nor the entire indusium of Z. spinulosa, and differs also in the 
