CRYPTOGAMIA-FILICES. Aspidium. 275 



4. A. Filix inas. Male Shield-fern. 



Frond doubly pinnate ; leaflets obtuse, serrated, partly 

 confluent. Stalk scaly. Masses near the midrib. Cover 

 orbicular. 



A. Filix mas. Sw. Sijn. Fil. 55. fVilUl. Sp. PL v. 5, 250. FL Br. 



1121. Eugl. Bot. V. 21. t. 1458. Hook. Scot.p.2. 154. Land. 



t. 40. 

 A. cristatum. Engl. Bot. v. 28. t. 1949. 

 Polypodium Filix mas. Limi. Sp. PL\ 551. Huds.458. Bolt. Fil. 44. 



i. 24. Woodv. t. 49. Guny\. Norveg. v. 1.4. t. \.f. 4. Bull. Fr. 



t. 183. Dicks. H. Sicc.fasc.3. 19. Ehrh. Crypt. 141. 

 P. n. 1701. Hall. Hist. v. 3. 13 j excl. VaillanVs syn. 

 Polystichum Filix mas. Roth Germ. v. 3. 82. 

 Filix mas vulgaris. RaiiSyn.\20. Ger. Em.l 128. f. Lob. Ic.Sl2.f. 



Fuchs. Hist. 595. f; not good. /c. 341./. Matth. Falgr. v. 2. 



626./. not good. Camer. Epit.99l.f. better. Dalech. Hist. 



1222./ 

 F. non ramosa dentata. Bank. Pin. 358. Moris, v. 3. 578. sect. 14. 



t.3.f.6. 

 F. vulgaris. Trag. Hist. 546./. 



In woods, dry ditches, and on shady banks, common. 



Perennial. June, July. 



Root tufted, large, scaly. Fronds several, three feet high, erect, not 

 so regularly disposed in a circle as the foregoing, but of the 

 same lanceolate shape, and leafy nearly to the bottom ; their 

 stalks and midribs scaly, or chaffy, throughout. Leaves alter- 

 nate, taper-pointed, pinnate. Leajlets numerous, crowded, ses- 

 sile, for the most part distinct, occasionally somewhat com- 

 bined at the base, but far less so than the figures of the earlier 

 writers represent them. Dr. Hooker's and Bulliard's plates are 

 the most correct in this particular. Each leajlet is oblong, ob- 

 tuse, crenate throughout, the lateral notches broadest and most 

 shallow, the terminal ones more crowded and acute, without 

 any terminal bristles ; both sides are smooth, destitute of glan- 

 dular globules, but there is a depression on the upper one, over 

 the insertion of each mass of capsules. These masses are cir- 

 cular, tawny, ranged in simple, close, short rows, near the par- 

 tial midrib, and scarcely occupying more than the lower half 

 of each leaflet. Cover circular, durable, crenate, tumid, with 

 a cleft terminating in the central depression. Capsules nume- 

 rous, of a shining brown, prominent all round a little beyond 

 the cover. 



The root is a famous Swiss remedy for intestinal worms, chiefly 

 the Tape- worm, which in that country is a different species 

 from our's ; see Sir Anthony Carlisle's paper on these ani- 

 mals, in Tr. of Linn. Soc. v. 2. 247. The peculiar nauseous 



T 2 



