ASPIDIUM, § POLYSTICFIUM. 19 



Hook, and Am. Brit. Fl. cd. 8. /;. 582. Polypodiiim aculcatuin, Iluds. Angl. 

 p. 4.)9. Polysticluiin aciileatum. Roth, Fit. Germ. in. p. 79. Moore, Br. Ferns, 

 Nat. Print, t. 10. Aspid. acnleatuin, /8 intermedium, Hook. Brit. Ferns, t. 11. 

 Aspid. IJraiinii, in Spen. Fit. Frie/j. {Braun in Herb. Nostr.). 2. Aspid. lobatum, 

 Sw. in Schrad. Journ. 1800, ii. p. 37, and Syn. Fit. p. o3 (frond more rigid, 

 subcoriaceons ; pinnules sessile, dccurrent, and more or less confluent at the ijase, 

 superior basal pinnule the largest, und tliat pinnule chiefly auricled). Schk. 

 Fit. t. 40. Sm. Fit. Brit. p. 1 123. U'illd. Sp. PL v. p. 200. ' Engl. Bot. t. 15G3. 

 Hook, and Am. Brit. Fl. ed. S. p. 582. Polystichum acuhidtum, in part, Moore, 

 Brit. Fernii. Nat. Print, t. 10. A. aculeatum, var. lohatuni, Hook. Brit. Ferns, 

 t. 10. 3. Aspid. angularc, Willd. Sp. PL v. p. 257. Sm. Engl. Fit. iv. jw. 278. 

 Engl. Bot. Siippl. t. 27, 6 (fronds more membranaceous, more chaffy ; pinnules 

 small orbicular-riioniboid, mostly auriculate: the deep serratures setiferous rather 

 tlian spinulose). Hook, and Am. Brit. Flora, ed. V>. p. 583. Aspid. acuh-atum, ;8, 

 Sm. Fit. Brit. p. 1122. Var. b. angnlare, Braun in Melt. Fil. Hort. Lips. p. 88. 

 Jupid. p. 48. Var. angulare. Hook. Brit. Ferns, t. 12. Polystichum angulare, 

 PresU Tent. Pterid. jo. 83. Moore, Brit. Ferns, Nat. Print, it. 12, 13. Of these 

 are so many intermediate passages from the one kind to the other, that no one, I 

 think, can study them with an unprejudiced mind, without seeing tlie propriety 

 of looking upon them as one species ; and the three several forms are by no means 

 confined to the countries now under consideration. Our typical form is common 

 throughout Britain and the temperate and even the warmer parts of Europe, in 

 Spain and Portugal, Greece, Heldreich, Morea {Iiypopeltis lobulata, Bory), Calabria 

 (Asp. hastulatum, Tenore, Pavilion in Herb. Nosir.) 



2. North America. United States, apparently rare : (not in Chapra. Fil. of 

 S. U. St.) Mountains of New Hampshire, Vermont, probably nowhere soutli of New 

 York. Not found in Canada: but it ap|)ears in N. \V. America, near the sources 

 of the Columbia, Drummond. Sitka (Aspid. vestitum, Bongard, Veg. of Sitka, 

 p. bl, and in Herb. Nostr.) ; Nutka, Htenke. 



3. Africa and adjacent islands. North Africa : Madeira, abundant (mostly 

 angulare form) ; Teneriffe, Webb, Bourgeon (Aspid. angulare, Webb) ; Azores, 

 abundant, Seubert (A. angulare, Seub.) ; Mount Silke, Abyssinia, Sc/timper, It. 

 Abyss. 71. G80 (typical form) ; Fernando Po, on the Peak, elev. 9000 feet, G. Mann, 

 the common European form. South Africa: Cape Colony, frequent. Cape to 

 Natal (Aspid. pungens,* Kaulf. Schlech't. Adumbr. p. 21. t. 10) ; generally larger 

 and l)roader than the European form, with a tendency to be tripinnate,and with more 

 distant pinnae and pinnules; the latter more elongated and more falcate. Aspid. 

 luctuosum, Kze., and Pappe and Rawson, is quite our European and typical form. 

 Pappe and Rawson {Syn. Fil. Afr. Austr.) l)ring into the Cape Flora " Aspid. angu- 

 lare. Kit.;" and my specimen of A. luctuosum, from Sir George Grey, would, I 

 ■think, be referred to that by some botanists: and Mr. Moore remarks, in Herb. Nostr., 

 my Natal specimen of angulare is quite a normal English form. From the Cape, 

 Milne, and from Natal {Captain Garden), I possess sj)ccimens quite according 

 with the Aspid. stramineum, Kaulf., of Mauritius. Bourbou, Carmichael, and 



* Possibly I may be wrong in referring the Aspid. pungens, Kaulf., to the present 

 species, especially if, as Schlechtendal says, the caudex is really " liorizontalis pro- 

 re|)('ns," which [ have no means of confirming. One of my specimens, indeed, from 

 Ecklon (under n.4G10) is so extremely unlike the figure of Schlechtendal (Tab. X.), 

 that 1 bad long considered it totally distinct Uou) pungens or aculeatum, in its great 

 size (between 4-5 feet long, including the densely paleaceous stijies), its very com- 

 pound, though narrow-lanceolate and acuminated pinnules, deeply pinnatifid'and 

 even again pinnatifid, quite tripinnate ; but I find intermediate forms which it 

 must be confessed too much resemble aculeatum to induce me, in the present 

 state of my knowledge, to keep them separate. 



