THE BROAD PRICKLY-TOOTHED BUCKLER FERN. 



an ovate outline broadest at Hie base, the stipe*, forming nearly half the entire height. Both the stipes 

 and rachis, as well as the under side of the veins, are sparingly clothed with short-stalked glands. Tho 

 stipes is clothed thickly at tho base, more sparingly upwards, with lanceolate scales having tho usual 

 dark central mark. Tho lowest pinna) an- unequal- sided, but the rest are nearly equal. The fronds are 

 hipinnatc. but the pinnules are decurrent, more or less convex, the larger ones somewhat lobed. with 

 serrated lobes, tho rest merely scrrato with spinuloso teeth. The sori are most copious in the upper part 

 of the frond, and form a line on each side the midvein of the pinnules nearer tho rib than the margin ; 

 they are rather small, formed of roundish ohovate spore-cases, which are almost black when fresh, and 

 arc covered by a Bmall, delicate, somewhat glandular-margined iudusium. which soon shrivels and 

 becomes concealed among the spore-cases. 



Miss Beevei-'s, or the Thicket Prickly-toothed Buckler Fern— L. mxatata dcmetokuh— (Plato 

 XXV.) is a dwarf or dwarfish form, with broad ovate, or elongate-triangular, or sometimes, deltoid fronds, 

 remarkable for their glandular surface, and their large abundant sori produced freely on plants of very 

 immature age. This form of the plant, which appears to us entitled to specific distinction, occurs under 

 several modifications, some of which have been referred to tho var. collina, with which, however, they 

 do not agree. Of these modifications, one discovered in the Lake district by Miss Bccvcr, to whom we 

 are indebted for specimens and plants, is the most marked with which wo are acquainted, and like the 

 rest, sufficiently accords with the imperfect specimens of Sir J. E. Smith's Aipidium dumcloriiin, to be 

 found in his herbarium. This plant has elongatc-triangular-ovato fronds growing about a foot high, 

 and very glandular, especially on the stipes, rachis, and lower surface of tho veins ; they are bipinnate, 

 the pinna' concave and bluntish ; the pinnules broad oblong, or oblong-ovate, convex, crispy, and 

 coarsely toothed, the teeth broad and acuminately tipped by a small bristle. Tho stipes is sparingly 

 clothed with lanceolate scales of variable width, and of a pale-brown colour, scarcely at all darker in 

 the centre, and having their margin fimbriate. The sori arc large, distinct, produced over tho whole 

 under surface, and covered by indusio, which are prominently fringed with stalked glands. Young 

 plants of this form, but a few months old, and three or four inches high, bear fronds which are 

 abundantly fertile. With this wo associate the following which agree in the pale-coloured, broad 

 lance-shaped, sparingly fimbriated scales of tho stipes and crown, in the dwarf habit, the subtriangular 

 or ovate fronds, in tho glanduloso surface, and tho large distinct sori : — (1) a Fern found at Festiniog 

 by Dr. Allchin, somewhat larger in growth under cultivation, less concave in the pinna?, and therefore 

 less crispy-looking ; (2| another similar, from the hills ahovo Rhayader, found by Mr. J. R. Cobb ; 

 (3) Dr. Deakin's L. macttluta. found on Goatfcll, Arrnn, which is also a dwarf glandular form of the species, 

 with a more ovate outline of frond ; (4) a similar plant, which we gathered at Tarbet, in Glen Croe, 

 and on the coast of Arran ; (5) a form having the same general characteristics, found by the 

 Rev. J. M. Chanter, in the vicinity of llfracombe in Devonshire ; and (G) a similar form found in the 

 Isle of Man, by Dr. Allchin. These all diner from that first described in little but the absence of the 

 crispy aspect of the pinnules, which has been already mentioned ; and do not differ among themselves 

 more than the forms of many other Ferns. 



Mr. Pindcr's, or the Hill Prickly- toothed Buckler Fern — Lastuba mxatata collina — (Plate XXVI., 

 a.u.) was first brought into notice by the Rev. G. finder, to whom we are indebted for specimens and 

 much information concerning it. It is a remarkably neat-looking form of the species, having sometimes 

 an ovate outline of frond, attenuate!)' elongated at tho apex, but also occurring in a more elongated, 

 i.e. an oblong-lanceolate or ovate-lnnccolatc form. Tho fronds arc dark-green, one to two feet high, 

 smooth or sparingly glandular, bipinnate. Tho stii>es is variable in length, both in wild specimens, 

 some of which arc found beneath masses of rock, and under cultivation ; from one-half to one-third 

 the length of the fronds, green above, tinged with dark purple-brown at the base, scaly, with entire 

 lanceolate dark-brown scales, which have a conspicuous darker central mark; the scales at tho Iwso 

 of the stipes, where they are most numerous, arc narrow, and have a long subulate point ; higher up 





