SCO CRYPTOGAMIA— FILICES. Aspidium. 



bicular, being fixed by one spot only. Capsules blackish, but 

 they become tawny, as well as the cover, after a while. 



6. A. aculcatuvi. Common Prickly Slneld-fern. 



Frond doubly pinnate; leaflets ovate, pointed, stalked, 

 somewhat crescent-shaped, fringed with prickly serra- 

 tiires. Midribs all scaly or shaggy. Cover orbicular, flat. 



A. aculeatum. Sw. Srjn. Fit. ;J3, Tf'illd. Sp. PI. v. 5. 258. Fl. Br. 

 1 1 22. Engl. Bot. v. 22. t. 15C2. Hook. Scot. p. 2. 154. 



Polvpodium aciileatum. Limi. Sp. PI. 1552. Huds. 459. Light/. 

 675. Bolt. Fil. 48. t. 26. Mill. Illustr. t. lOl. Ehrh. Phtf- 

 toph. 78. 



P. n. 1712, a. Hall. Hist. v. 3. !6. 



Polystichum aculeatum. Roth. Germ. v.o. 79. 



Filix mas non ramosa, pinnulis latis auriculatis .spinosis. Rail 

 Syn. 121. Goodtjer in Ger. Em. 1 130. Moris, v. 3. 580. sect. 14. 

 t.d.f. 15. Pluk. Almag. 152. Phijt. t. 179./. 6; a young spe- 

 cimen. 



/3. F. Lonchitidi aflinis. Raii Syn. ed. 2. 48. «/. 3. 1 2 1 . 

 F. aculeata Lonchitidis semula nostras. Pluk. Almag. 151. t. 180. 

 /.3. 



In woods and about shady banks, especially such as are moist and 

 stony. 



/3. On the Welsh mountains. Mr. Lhwyd. In dry woods near Rip- 

 pon, Yorkshire. Mr. W. Brunton. 



Perennial. July. 



Root tufted, large. Fronds numerous, spreading in a circle, each 

 rather smaller than those oi A. Filix mas, of a dark blueish green, 

 paler beneath, lanceolate, tapering to a point, firm and some- 

 what rigid, elegantly, regularly, and closely twice pinnate, with 

 a considerable very scaly stalk ; the midrib, and partial ribs also, 

 being clothed with narrower scales, sometimes occurring still 

 narrower, like hairs, on the backs of the leaflets. Leaves alter- 

 nate, close together, linear-lanceolate, taper-pointed. Leajlets 

 numerous, alternate, distinctly though rather shortly stalked, 

 ovate inclining to lunate, with an oblique, acute, tapering point ; 

 the serratures few and unequal, likewise taper-pointed, the 

 lowermost of which, at the upper edge, forms more or less of a 

 lobe, especially in the lowest leaflet, which is rather bigger 

 than the rest. Masses smaller, and more remote, than in the 

 two last. Cover orbicular, without a notch, flat, with a central 

 protuberance when young. 



^, sometimes mistaken for A. Lonchitis, n. 1, is a starved variety, 

 owing to a dry and barren soil. Plukenet's t. \79. f. 6 repre- 

 sents merely a young specimen. The |3 of Fl. Brit. I have now 

 separated, as unquestionably distinct ; — see the following. 



