FILICES. 157 



bent or creeping caudex ; stipes nearly as long as the leafy part, 

 stout, brownish- purple below, with a few broad-ovate, pale 

 coloured scales. The fronds vary in height from 2 to 5 feet, they 

 are of a yellowish- green colour, and of a narrow oblonge-lanceo- 

 late form, bipinnate. Lower pinnae distant, nearly opposite, tri- 

 angular ; the upper pinna? narrow and closer together. Pinnules 

 oblong, pointed at the apex, the lower ones with a short stalk, the 

 upper ones sessile, very much cut or pinnatifid, the lobes deeply 

 serrated, the serratiires terminating in short bristle-like teeth. 

 The midvein of the pinnules sends off a vein to each lobe, which 

 is alternately branched, the branches again dividing in a forked 

 manner into the terminal venules. Sori numerous, borne on the 

 short anterior basal venules and forming two rows along the 

 lobes of the pinnules, round, covered by a flat, membranaceous, 

 kidney-shaped indusium ; spore-cases brown. Forde bog, found 

 by Mr. C. E. Parker, in 1854, and by myself this year, 1859. P. 

 vi.-ix. 



3. Ii. dilatata (broad prickly -toothed Buckler -Fern!) In 

 woods, on banks, and by sides of shaded streams. " Fronds 

 ovate-lanceolate, bipinnate, pinnules pinnate or pinnatifid ; seg- 

 ments acutely serrate, spinose-mucronate ; indusium with marginal 

 stalker! glands ; stipes clothed ivith long pointed scales, with a dark 

 (nearly black) centre and diaphanous margin" (Bab. Man.). 

 (Aspidium dilatatum, E. B. t. 1461. A. spinulosum, var. )3, 

 Hook, and Arnott. Moore, Nat. Print. Ferns, t. 22. Sowerby's 

 Ferns, 1. 13.) Caudex stout and erect, with a thickly scaly crown ; 

 stipes about one-third the length of the whole frond, thick below 

 and covered profusely with lanceolate scales, which are light 

 coloured at the edges, but have a well defined dark centre ; 

 rachis more sparingly covered with small, pointed, more or less 

 defined, two-coloured scales. Fronds varying in height from 1 

 or 2 to 6 feet, dark green above, but paler beneath, widely spread- 

 ing and gracefully arched or drooping, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 

 bi- or tri-pinnate ; the lower pair of pinna? sometimes spreading 

 out much wider than the rest, and forming, as it were, the base 

 of a triangle, but usually shorter than the pair immediately above 

 them. Pinna? nearly opposite, the lower ones obliquely triangu- 

 lar, the upper oblong, acute, with the superior and inferior seg* 

 ments nearly equal. Pinnules ovate-oblong, the lower ones 

 stalked, the upper sessile and decurrent, pinnatifid, the divisions 

 terminating in sharp teeth with a bristle-like point. Yenation con- 

 sists of a stout midvein which sends off a strong flexuous vein to 

 each pinnulet, from which a small vein is given off to the marginal 

 lobes ; they there divide in a forked manner, and supply a branch to 

 each tooth. The fructification occupies the whole under surface 

 of the frond, the sori being numerous, round, covered by a large 



