CRYPTOGAMIA-FILICES. Aspidium. 293 



Root somewhat creeping. Fronds of a delicate light green, about 

 a foot high, smooth in every part, except the base of the com- 

 mon stalk ; their outline triangular, or deltoid, the lowermost 

 of their leaves, or primary divisions, being longest. .Stalk about 

 one-third of the whole frond in length, pale, slender, smooth 

 and naked, except a few scales towards the bottom. Leaves not 

 quite opposite ; lea/lets more generally so, gradually a little 

 larger downward, but all tolerably equal and uniform, elliptical, 

 bluntish, running down at the base into the narrow wings of 

 their common stalk ; the middle rib of each zigzag, or serpen- 

 tine ; the margin beset with broad, deep, incurved serratures, 

 each tipped with a bristly point. Masses rather small and di- 

 stant, in simple rows, or somewhat scattered, often towards the 

 margin, or the notches, of the leaflets. Cover thin, orbicular 

 when perfect, with a lateral fissure, but finally pushed aside by 

 the swelling capsules. 



Dr, Swartz seems to confound this with the next, but they are 

 perfectly and essentially distinct. Dr. Withering was the first 

 systematic British botanist who determined the present species. 

 Plukenef's figure is excellent, but the Filix puniila saxaiilis al- 

 tera of Clusius, which Haller could not ascertain, and for which 

 Parkinson mistook our fern, is evidently different. Morison's 

 sect. 14. t. 3./. 1 1, quoted by Willdenow, uo less unquestion- 

 ably belongs to something else, being perhaps the true ^. cris. 

 latum, n. 5, which Bobart's herbarium at Oxford may possibly 

 determine. The plant of Goodyer in Ger. Em. 1 1 29, to which 

 Morison refers, a))pears to be our ^. dilatatum. 



10. A. dilatatum. Broad Sharp-toothed Shield-fern. 



Frond doubly pinnate ; leaflets deeply pinnatifid ; lobes 

 deeply serrated, with prickly teeth. Common stalk scaly. 

 Cover ki<lney-shaped, tumid; finally orbicular, with a 

 lateral notch. 



A. dilatatum. Willd. Sp. PL v. 5. 263. Fl. Br. 1 125. Engl. Bot. 



v.2\. t.\46l. Forst. Tonbr. 1 19. Hook. Scot. p. 2. 154 j excl. 



A. spinulosum. 

 A. spinulosum. Sw. Syn. Fil. 54 ? 

 Polypodium dilatatum. Hoffm. Germ. v. 2. 7. 

 P. aristatum. Villars Dauph. v. 3. 844. Bellardi in Act. Taurin. 



V. 5. 255. 

 P. cristatum. Huds.457. fVith.77S. Bolt. Fil. 42. t.23. Schreb. 



Lips.7\. Ehrh. Crypt. 8\. 

 P. n. 1705. Hall. Hist. v. 3. 14. 

 P. n. 845. Muller Fridrichsdal. 193. t. 2./. 4. 

 Polystichum multiflorum. Roth. Germ. v. 3. 87. 

 Filix mas ramosa, pinnulis dentatis. Ger. Em. 1129 ; no/. Rail 



Syn. \24. Phk. Almag. \55. Phyf. t. \8\.f.2. 



