70 rOI.YSTICMU.M ANGULARK. 



tlu^ south and south-west. It is common in Cornwall, and 

 somewhat abundant at Chaigeley, in Lancashire. Somersetshire, 

 Devonshire, Hants, Surrey, Sussex, and Kent are also favoured 

 counties. In Ireland it is also abundant, whilst in Scotland- it 

 is only recorded as occurring in Argyleshire and Berwickshire. 



It is a native of Sweden, Norway, France, Spain, Italy, 

 Greece, the Channel Islands, the coast of the Black Sea, India, 

 Georgia, Abyssinia, Natal, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Azores, 

 United States, Sitka, Mexico, Guatemala, Caraccas, Java, New 

 Grenada, and Singapore. 



In England this plant prefers lowland shady woods or hedge 

 banks where the soil is moist. In 1860, I found it in Spain 

 growing from two thousand to three thousand feet above the 

 sea, on a mountain known as the Villia Escusa, between Reinosa 

 and AUar. This mountain is one of the spurs of the Pyrenees, 

 and near the summit rocks rise up in lines like streets, so much 

 so that it is difficult to find the way amongst them; in shady 

 parts where the ground sinks below the surrounding level from 

 three to ten feet, and where these well-like holes are narrow 

 and much confined the Polystichum angulare is found growing 

 amongst other Ferns, serving as a shelter to the numerous 

 wolves and foxes that have taken possession of these heights. 



The "Angular Shield Fern," or, as it is sometimes called, 

 **The Soft Prickly Shield Fern," for distinction from the 

 "Common Prickly Shield Fern," is herbaceous and evergreen. 

 The fronds are usually lax, lanceolate in form, and bipinnate. 

 The pinnules are distinct and various in form, acute or nearly 

 linear to obtuse or broad, having an obtuse-angled base, with 

 a distinct stalk. The pinnules are either serrated or lobed, 

 and having soft bristles at the apices of the serratures. The 

 fronds are numerous, and placed round the caudex, they are 

 spreading and arched, or drooping and bitripinnate. The pinnse 

 numerous and varying in length, sometimes the basal ones are 

 longest, but usually they taper towards the base and apex, being 

 narrow linear -lanceolate in form. The pinnules ovate-falcate, 

 having a bold anterior projecting flat lobe. Usually profoundly 

 serrate, each serrature ending in a slender but rigid bristle. 

 The basal anterior pinnule is frequently much larger than the 

 rest. Profoundly pinnatifid, and occasionally even pinnate. 



Veins furcately-branched and alternate, from a flexuous mid- 



