CRYPTOGAMIA— FILICES. Aspidium. 277 



bicular, being fixed by one spot only. Capsules blackish, but 

 they become tawny, as well as the cover, after a while. 



b'. A. aculeatum. Common Prickly Shield-fern. 



Frond doubly pinnate ; leaflets ovate, pointed, stalked, 

 somewhat crescent-shaped, fringed with prickly serra- 

 tures. Midribs all scaly or shaggy. Cover orbicular, flat. 



A. aculeatum. Sw. Syn. Fil. 53. IVilld. Sp. PL v. 5. 258. FL Br. 

 1122. Engl. Bot.v. 22. t. 1562. Hook. Scot. p. 2. 154. 



Polypodium aculeatum. Linn. Sp. PI. \ 532. Uiuls. 4j9. Light/, 

 675. Boll. Fil. 48. t. 26. Mill. Illustr. t. lOl. Ehrli. Phy- 

 toph. 78. 



P. n. 1712, a. Hall. Hist. V. 3. 16. 



Polystichum aculeatum. Roth Germ. v. 3. 79. 



Filix mas non ramosa, pinnulis latis auriculatis spinosis. Rail 

 Syn. 121. Goodyer in Ger. Em. 1 130. Moris, v. 3.580. sect. 14. 

 t.3.f.l5. Pink. Almag. \52. Phyt. t. 179. f. 6; a young spe- 

 cimen. 



/3. F. Lonchitidi affinis. Rail Syn. ed. 2. 48. ec/. 3. 1 2 1 . 



F. aculeata Lonchitidis semula nostras. Pluk. Almag. 151. ^. 180. 

 /.3. 



In woods and about shady banks, especially such as are moist and 

 stony. 



(3. On the Welsh mountains. Mr. Lhwyd. In dry woods near Rip- 

 pon, Yorkshire. Mr. fV.Brunton. 



Perennial. July. 



Root tufted, large. Fronds numerous, spreading in a circle, each 

 rather smaller than those of A. Filix mas, of a dark blueish green, 

 paler beneath, lanceolate, tapering to a point, firm and some- 

 what rigid, elegantly, regularly, and closely twice pinnate, with 

 a considerable very scaly stalk; the midrib, and partial ribs also, 

 being clothed with narrower scales, sometimes occurring still 

 narrower, like hairs, on the backs of the leaflets. Leaves alter- 

 nate, close together, linear-lanceolate, taper-pointed. Leaflets 

 numerous, alternate, distinctly though rather shortly stalked, 

 ovate inclining to lunate, with an oblique, acute, tapering point; 

 the serratures few and unequal, likewise taper-pointed, the 

 lowermost of which, at the upper edge, forms more or less of a 

 lobe, especially in the lowest leaflet, which is rather bigger 

 than the rest. Masses smaller, and more remote, than in the 

 two last. Cover orbicular, without a notch, flat, with a central 

 protuberance when young. 



|3, sometimes mistaken for A. Lonchitis, n. I , is a starved variety, 

 owing to a dry and barren soil. Plukenet's t. 179. /. 6, repre- 

 sents merely a young specimen. The /3 of Fl. Brit. I have now 

 separated, as unquestionably distinct j — see the following. 



