50 ASPIDIUM ACULEATUM. 



Aspidium intermedium, Sadlee. -v 



" munitum, Sadlee. / 



lenUm, Don. C '^^^ ^^^*- ^^^^'"'"- 



" ocellatum, Wallich. -^ 



Aspidium — The Shield Fern. Aculeatum — Prickly. 



In the Sectio:n Polystichum of Authors. 



A MOST interesting species of handsome growth, and having 

 brilliant shining fronds. Growing in shady situations. It is 

 by no means an uncommon British plant, being found in 

 almost every county of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and 

 the Channel Islands, from the sea-level to two thousand feet 

 elevation. 



Common throughout the whole of Europe, (except, perhaps, 

 the countries of Greece and Turkey;) from Scandinavia to 

 Spain. Russian Asia, British India, Algiers, Madeira, America, 

 from Eastern United States to Columbia. 



An evergreen indigenous species. 



Caudex thick and tufted. Stipes short, three to four inches 

 in length, densely scaly. Rachis stout and densely scaly. 



Fronds bipinnate, lanceolate, or broadly linear-lanceolate, 

 rigid; pinnae numerous, obliquely lanceolate, broadest at the 

 base, acuminate, pinnate at the base, and sometimes nearly to 

 the apex; pinnules somewhat elliptic, acute, and aristate at the 

 apex, auriculate on the anterior side, and being acute and 

 mucronate, aristate and subsessile, attached by the cuneate base, 

 or decurrent. The basal anterior pinna larger than the rest. 



Veins branched. Fructification mostly confined to the upper 

 half of the frond. 



Sori circular, indusiate, eventually becoming confluent or 

 crowded. Indusium membranaceous, orbicular, peltate, and 

 umbilicate. 



Length of frond from one to three feet, rigid, leathery, smooth, 

 and dark shining green above; paler beneath. 



There is a similarity between Aspidium aculeatum and the 

 A. angular e, at least to those not well versed in Ferns; the 

 former, however, is more rigid, upright, and stouter in its growth. 



