72 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND FERNS. 



fern, whose broad lance-shaped fronds assume varying attitudes 

 of grace in order not seriously to overlap their neighbour fronds. 



The stout rootstock is half erect, covered with pale brown 

 oval scales, which are also found on the stipes and very 

 sparingly on the lower part of the rachis. What we have 

 said as to the branching of the rootstock of N. cristatum applies 

 also to this species. The fronds may be as long as three or 

 four feet, of which about one-third is the stipes, and the form 

 may be described as lance-shaped, broadest at the base, or oval 

 with the narrow end continued gradually to a point. They are 

 twice pinnate, the pinnae lance-shaped, the lowest pair some- 

 what triangular. The pinnules and upper pinnae almost pinnate, 

 cut to the rachis into oblong lobes with sharp teeth that end in 

 hair-like points. The sori are produced chiefly on the upper 

 pinnules of the frond, and form a row on each side of the midrib. 

 The indusium is smooth, without glands or fringe. The spores 

 are ripe about August and September. The stipes of this 

 species, though not succulent like that of Lady-fern, is very 

 brittle, so that in any exposed position the plant has often a 

 tumbled appearance. In a sheltered place where it is not 

 overshaded the Prickly Buckler has much grace, for the fronds 

 growing semi-erectly from the rootstock arch gently backwards. 

 It has a special beauty when perched on some mossy boulder 

 in the midst of a brawling torrent that pours down the foot of a 

 mountain, as we have seen it both in Wales and Ireland. 

 (Plates 73, 81.) 



The Prickly Buckler-fern is widely distributed, extending 

 north as far as Aberdeenshire and Dumbartonshire, much more 

 plentiful in the South than in the North, and not very abundant 

 in Ireland. It occurs in Central and Northern Europe, North- 

 Eastern Asia, South Africa, and Arctic America. 



The name spinulosum is from the Latin spinula, a little thorn, 

 in reference to the appearance of prickliness given by the hair- 

 like teeth, and the English name is merely a rough equivalent. 



