ASPIDIUM. 21 



mainly alternate. Stem thick, but slightly- 

 scaly, and having no pinnse for about one- 

 third below. Pinnulets broad, stout, and 

 indented, oblong-rounded, and spinous. 

 When compared with Filix Mas, like the 

 short, fat, robust, Dutch, figure contrasted 

 with the British. Sori running higher on 

 the pinnulet. May. Deciduous. Rare. 

 Only on a few boggy heaths. Likes turfy 

 peat soil and moisture. In the young 

 plants it might often be mistaken for 

 Spinulosum, only more equable in the 

 frond, blunter in the pinnulets, and less 

 bristly. 



DILATATUM. (Broad Prickly -toothed 



Shield-Fern.} Fig. 10. From 1 to 5 feet. 

 Growing circularly. Dark green, or healthy 

 sappy yellow. Frond verging towards tri- 

 angular; sometimes few from one root; 

 arching asunder. Stem bare of pinnse at 

 the bottom. Pinnae apart, and mainly 

 opposite. Pinnules hardly stalked, con- 

 vex, or extremely so, and folding back, 

 apart, oblong, much divided and toothed, 

 spinous, roundish at the apex ; the inferior 

 larger than the superior ; often, especially 

 those on the former side of the lower 

 pinnae becoming secondary pinnse them- 

 selves. In one form, if, as the name would 

 seem to imply, that be not the original 



