12 BROAD PRICKLY-TOOTHED OR CRESTED FERN. 



BROAD PRICKLY-TOOTHED OR CRESTED 

 FERN. 



ASPIDI UM DILA TA TUM. 



(Fig. 10.) 



SYNONYMS. 



LASTREA DILATATA. Presl, Babington. 

 ASPIDIDIUM SPINULOSUM. Hooker. 

 LOPHODIUM MULTIFLORUM. Newman. 



THIS is one of the most common and generally 

 distributed of British ferns, growing in woods and on 

 sheltered hedgebanks everywhere. Unlike Aspidium 

 spinulosum, the rhizome is not all creeping, it rarely 

 branches, but forms a strong, enduring, erect, stem-like 

 base, that not unfrequently rises from six inches to a 

 foot above the soil. The fronds are pinnate; the 

 pinnae nearly opposite; the pairs gradually approxi- 

 mate from the base towards the apex ; the first and 

 second pairs are very broad at the base, the third pair 

 longer and narrower, and so on with the rest until 

 they reach the apex of the frond. According to 

 Babington, this species is distinguished chiefly by 

 having the stipes clothed with long, pointed scales, 

 with a dark centre and diaphanous margin. It is 

 a very variable fern, and can with difficulty be re- 



