POLYSTICHUM. 91 



grow up in a circle, about the month of April, and take a 

 somewhat erect position. Their form is lanceolate, — in the 

 most perfect state of the species broadly lanceolate, but in a 

 variety presently to be referred to, very narrowly lanceolate. 

 The texture is harsh and rigid, the upper surface dark 

 green, and shining, and the short stipes densely enveloped 

 in rust-coloured membranous pointed scales. The fronds 

 are bipinnate, with alternate pinnse, these pinnge being 

 again more or less perfectly divided into a series of pin- 

 nules, which are either decurrent, — that is, insensibly 

 merging in the substance of the rachis which supports 

 them, — or else, are tapered to a wedge-shaped base, and 

 attached to the rachis by the point of the wedge. The 

 general form of these pinnules is somewhat elongately 

 crescent-shaped, the upper base being extended into a 

 Small auricle, or enlarged lobe, and the lower base, as it 

 were, sloped away ; while the apex is tapered oflf to an 

 acute point, and the margin is serrated with spiny teeth. 

 The veins are alternately branched, and do not join toge- 

 ther or anastomose, but extend free to the margin ; and 

 the fructification, which is generally abundant, and often 

 crowded, is ranged in a line on each side the midrib of the 

 pinnules, and also on the larger pinnules on each side 



