92 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



appearing in June or July, and remaining after the fronds of the 

 succeeding year are developed. Stipes very short, sometimes 

 consisting only of the dilated base, which remains permanently 

 attached to the caudex, and is rarely above 1 or 2 inches long, 

 containing 5 vascular bundles, clothed with very large scales, inter- 

 mixed with much smaller ones. Pinnse twisted so as to make an 

 angle with the general plane of the frond, with the spines variable in 

 length, but usually about y 1 ^ inch long. Sori rather large, and 

 ultimately confluent. 



Alpine Holly-fern. 



SPECIES II.— POLYS TIC HUM LOBATUM. Presl. 



Plate 1860. 



Babenh. Crypt. Vase. Europ. Exsicc. No. 22. 



P. aculeatum, Both. Bab. Man. Brit. Bot.ed. vii. p. 449. Moore, Handbk. Brit. Ferns, 



ed. iii. p. 81 ; and Nat. Print. Brit. Ferns, 8vo. ed. Vol. I. p. 123. Newm. Hist. 



Brit. Ferns, ed. iii. p. 111. 

 Aspidium lobatum, Schkuhr. Kunze, Bot. Zeit. 1848, p. 356. Milde, Fil. Europ. p. 105. 

 A. aculeatum, Willd. Sp. Plant. Vol. V. p. 258. 

 A. aculeatum, a. vulgare, Doll. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 976. Gren. & 



Godr. Fl. de Fr. Vol. III. p. 630. 

 Polypodium lobatum, Huds. Fl. Ang. p. 459. 



Caudex short, thick, decumbent or erect, not breaking into 

 separate crowns for several years. Fronds numerous, all similar, 

 arranged in shuttlecock fashion, ascending or slightly arching 

 backwards, evergreen. Stipes very short, thickly clothed with large 

 and small triangular-ovate or ovate-lanceolate erose-denticulate dusky 

 brown concolorous scales. Lamina coriaceous, rigid, dark green, 

 shining, much paler beneath, narrowly elliptical-oblong or oblong- 

 strapshaped, tapering gradually at the base and apex, bipinnate ; 

 rachis rather thickly clothed towards the base with lanceolate scales, 

 and throughout its whole length with numerous reddish-brown hair- 

 like scales, many of which are deciduous ; pinnae very shortly 

 stalked, strapshaped-acute, the lower ones deltoid triangular or 

 triangular, much shorter than the succeeding pair, pinnate ; pinnules 

 usually pointing towards the apex of the pinna, oblong or ovate, 

 falcate or rhomboidal, commonly more or less distinctly auricled at 

 the base on the anterior side, with the basal angle by which they are 

 attached usually less than a right angle ; those towards the base of 

 the pinnee more or less distinctly stalked, all coarsely spinous-serrate, 

 more rarely doubly serrate ; serratures prolonged into rigid spines. 



