BUCKLER FERN 
THE BROAD PRICKLY-TOOTE 
pinnules. "The venules all terminate in a 
small cub-shaped apex, below the tooth towards which they aro directed. 
ing the whole under surface. Sori numerous, 
‘The same, still more simplified, occurs in the smaller primary р 
Fructification on the back of the frond, and. occu 
‘medial, sub-terminal or ter ымі 
inal, seated on the anterio 
variable in size, distinct, round, indusiato ; 
anterior branch of the venules in the more 
venules in the less divided pinnules, and on the lowest 
оп each side the midvein, 
compound pinnules; in the former consequenti 
ming two lines in a similar way along 
amd much nearer to it than the margin; in the latter fo 
the lobes. 
und the ma кей 
gin with st 
Indusium renitorm, rather large, convex, membranous, fringed a 
andular, Spore-cases numerous, brown, rotundly 
Лалић ; or sometimes, small, lat, and indistinctly 
wate. Spores roundish or oblong, angular, muriculate 
Duration, The caudex is perennial, ‘The fronds are semi-persistent, continuing, under shelter, 
ase of the stipes. The young fronds are produced in 
lı the winter, though decaying at the 
spring, and additional ones uncertainly during the summer 
This is а most variable species, extremely difficult to understand. Tt is more or less intimately 
the kindred British plants 
united with two or three kindred species, by means of transition fo 
L. feniscció on the one hand, and that known as Æ. spinulosa, on the other. The latter is 
bei 
distinguished by its creeping caudex, the few broad pallid scales of its stipes, and its entire indusium 
the former by its more strictly evergreen habit, by its Iacorated scales, its anthoxanthoid fragrance, and 
sium, Z. feniseeié may also be known 
by the absence of stalked glands from the margin of its ind 
by the concavity of its pinn and pinnules; and even in the decay of its fronds it is peculiar, for 
whilst Z. spinulo 
amd La dilatata decay first near the base of the stipes, so that the fronds 
fall, while they appear green and fresh upwards, in Za fæniseci the stipes continues firm, while 
the apex of the frond is undergoing decay, the disorganisation in this ease going on from above 
downwards, and not from below upwards, The marks of Æ. dilatata, in the group of which its 
variations form so large a proportion, aro, its lanceolate entire dark-centred scales, and its 
ind-fringed indusin. 
‘The Tansy-leaved Prickly-toothed Buckler Fern] 
DILATATA raNacerivotta—is а tripinnate state 
of the species, with br ular outline, which is sometimes 
ul fronds indicating a tendency towards a trian 
ut moderate size, in 
strongly marked. ‘The fronds aro usually large, though there occur plants o 
which the peculiarities of the form aro fully developed. "he stipes has the usual entire lanceolate 
dark-brown abundant scales, marked with a still darker bar down their centre. It is one of the 
commoner forms of the species, and а variable form, merging gradually into that which we have 
considered as the type of the species, We are indebted to Professor Fée of Strasburg for a specimen of 
the Polystichum tanacet 
jum of De Candolle, which has enabled us to identify it with this form of 
L. dilatata 
м: 
anis, or the Dwarf Priekly-toothed Buckler Fern—L. штат хаха (Ралев XXVI, en) 
differs most obviously from the usual and commoner forms of the species, in its constantly smaller size; 
the extreme length of the fronds, including tho stipes, varying from two to four inches in the smallest 
forms, to eight or ten inches in the largest forms of the variety. This diminutivo size is а permanent 
characteristic, the variety having been observed by Mr. J 
Tatham to grow near Settle, in Yorkshire, for 
the Inst twenty years without ch 
se, and in company with the ordinary forms of the species three feet 
in height ; and the Rev. J. M. Chanter has observed the same 
t of constancy for a series of years in 
plants of this variety which occur near Tfrac 
bo, in Devonshire. Even when freely manure 
Mr. Tatham’s plant, though 
owing about fifteen inches 
gh, does not k 
se the dwarfish aspect of the 
hire plante 
© latter assumo some slight variations among themselves, "The fronds (of the Settle plants) aro of 
