FILICES. 93 



Ultimate veins scarcely impressed on the upper surface, but deeply so 

 beneath, running from the mid-vein of the pinnule and auricle to the 

 margin, giving off 1 or 2 branches, which run to the base of the teeth. 

 Sori commonly confined to the upper half of the frond, round, attached 

 to the first anterior branch of each of the ultimate veins, and forming a 

 line on each side of the mid-vein of the pinnule about equidistant from 

 the mid-vein and the margin, with a loop at the base extending into 

 the auricle, and in luxuriant plants sometimes with a few sori between 

 the line and the margin on the anterior side of the pinnule, imme- 

 diately above the auricle. Indusium flattish, strongly umbilicate, 

 circular, denticulate at the margin, soon shrivelling. Spores 

 tuberculate, with rather large very prominent obtuse tubercles, inter- 

 mingled with numerous smaller and more acute ones. 



Yar. a. genuinum. 



Aspidium lobatum, Smith, Eng. Bot. ed. i. No. 1563; and Eng. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 291. 



Hook. & Am. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 582. Hook. fil. Stud. Fl. p. 465. 

 A. aculeatum, var. a. lobatum, Hook. & Bak. Syn. Fil. ed. ii. p. 252. 



Caudex attaining a considerable age before dividing ; the crowns 

 of very old plants caespitose. Fronds spreading-ascending, arching 

 backwards when large, rather rigid, tapering greatly towards the 

 base ; lowest pair of pinnae usually very short, and shorter than 

 the succeeding pair ; pinnules not distinctly stalked, but attached by 

 a narrow base, which is decurrent on the lower side, many of them 

 towards the apex of the pinnae, and the whole of them towards the 

 apex of the frond, not separated from each other ; so that these 

 pinna?, and parts of pinnae, are only pinnatipartite or pinnatifid — not 

 pinnate. 



Yar. ft. aculeatum. 



Aspidium aculeatum, Sm. Eng. Bot. ed. i. No. 1562 ; and Eng. Fl. Vol. IV. p." 290. 



Hook. & Am. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 582. Hook. fil. Stud. Fl. p. 465 (?). 

 A. aculeatum, /3. aculeatum, Hook. & Bak. Syn. Fil. ed. ii. p. 252. 



Caudex attaining a great age before dividing, and even in very 

 old plants sometimes undivided. Fronds spreading-ascending, not 

 arching backwards, very rigid, not tapering very much towards the 

 base, and sometimes almost abrupt; lowest pair of pinnae usually 

 scarcely shorter than the succeeding pair; many of the pinnules 

 distinctly stalked, set on more at right angles to the rachis of the 

 pinna than in var. lobatum, and fewer of them towards the apex of 



