1MLICES. 



1045 



moist open woods, in temperate Europe, from northern Spain, and Italy 

 to Scandinavia, and eastward to Moscow. Generally dispersed over 

 Britain, but more especially in Scotland, northern and western Eng- 

 land, and in Ireland. Fr. summer and autumn. 



5. Male Shieldfern. Aspidium Filix-mas, Sw. (Eig. 1271.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1458. Lastrea, Bab. Man. Male Fern.) 



Rootstock short but thick, woody, 

 and decumbent or rising sometimes ob- 

 liquely a few inches from the ground. 

 Fronds handsome, in a large circular 

 tuft, 2 or 3 feet high, stiff and erect, 

 broadly lanceolate, with the lower pin- 

 nas decreasing, as in most Shieldferns, 

 regularly pinnate ; the pinna s deeply 

 pinnatifid or pinnate ; the segments re- 

 gularly oblong, slightly curved, very ob- 

 tuse, slightly toothed, connected at the 

 base or the lowest ones distinct ; the 

 main stalk very shaggy with brown 

 scarious scales. Sori rather large, near 

 the base of the segments, with a conspi- 

 cuous, nearly peltate or kidney-shaped 

 indusium. 



In woods and shady situations, along 

 moist banks, etc., throughout Europe 

 and central and Russian Asia, from the 

 Mediterranean to the Arctic regions, 

 and apparently in South America, but scarcely in North America. 

 One of the commonest of British Eerns. Fr. summer and autumn. 

 The barren fronds of young plants often resemble those of the broad S., 

 but the fruiting ones are almost always very distinct. 



Fig. 1271. 



6. Crested Shieldfern. Aspidium cristatum, Sw. 



(Eig. 1272.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 2125. Lastrea, Bab. Man.) 



Resembles in some respects the male S., but the frond is less erect, 

 the pinnas less regular, the segments broader, thinner, more wedge- 

 shaped on the lower side, much more toothed, and the lower ones 

 sometimes almost pinnatifid, the plant then forming some approach 

 to the broad S. 9 from which it differs in the general shape of the 



