ASPIDIUM. 25 



equable, and the inferior generally corre- 

 sponding with the superior ; oblong, round- 

 ended, not spinous, yet being a perfect 

 succession of fine incisions, points, and 

 teeth. Sori rather large, in rows towards 

 the centre, chiefly on the upper half of 

 the frond, and eventually uniting. May. 

 Deciduous. Rare. Confined to a few 

 mountains in the North. Succeeds fairly. 

 Graceful and pretty. 



SPINULOSTJM. (Lesser Prickly -toothed 



Shield-Fern.} Fig. 15. From 8 to 14 inches. 

 Growing in masses and together; mode- 

 rately erect, and firm. Dry greenish 

 yellow. PinnsB variable, more generally 

 opposite. Pinnules, or rather chiefly pin- 

 nulets, lightly, though very frequently and 

 regularly, toothed. Spinous. Sometimes 

 confounded with Dilatatum, especially 

 when dried ;* but when alive, a less succu- 

 lent-looking plant, and, besides the diflfer- 



* Useful as an Herbarium is in preserving the outlines of 

 each plant, its style, tint, character, appearance, air, texture, 

 relief, and so forth, when fresh and in vegetation, must, of 

 course, be lost in the sameness of one now uniform arid 

 body : 



"It is, 



And yet it is not, no more than the shadow, 

 Upon the hard, cold, flat, and polished, mirror, 

 Is the warm, graceful, rounded, living, substance 

 Which it presents in form and lineament." 



SIB WALTEB SCOTT. 



