THE SHIELD FERNS. 



2. 



THE SOFT PRICKLY SHIELD PERN. 

 Polystichum angular e. 



PLATE 3, FIG. 2. 



|OTHINGr puzzled us more in our earlier 

 Fern-hunting excursions than the dis- 

 tinction between the Hard and Soft 

 Prickly Shield Ferns. The two Ferns are usually 

 considered as distinct species, although some 

 botanists rank them both as one species under 

 the name of Polystichum acuhatum regarding 

 Angulare merely as a variety. We have chosen 

 to consider them as distinct species, and shall 

 now indicate the points of difference which we 

 have noted, showing at the same time up to what 

 point the two Ferns are like each other. In 

 being generally distributed throughout the United 

 Kingdom the one resembles the other. Both 

 ordinarily grow in the same situations, and the 

 fronds of Angulare, like those of Aculeatum, are 

 lance- shaped, and grow oftentimes to a length 



