ASPIDIUM. 



441 



next to the densely scaly stalk at the base of the frond. The pinnules 

 (leafits) are frequently almost circular, except near the stalked attachment, 

 where they are more or less wedge-shaped • their margin is short-toothed, 

 but not spiny, as in nearly all other forms of A. angular e. The terminal 

 lobe of each pinna is larger, and either shallow fan- shaped or nearly short- 

 triangular and blunt-toothed on the upper margin. — Lowe, Our Native 

 Ferns, i„ p. 99, fig. 68. 



A. a. setaceum — se-ta'-ce-um (bristly), Sim. 



A very interesting, dwarf- growing form, raised from spores at Foot's 

 Cray. Its short, nearly erect fronds, 6in. to 9in. long, are short- stalked, 

 spear-shaped, and bipinnate (twice divided). The pinnules (leafits) are 

 conspicuously stalked, excepting near the margin of the fronds, where 

 they are confluent (merging into a very broad and toothed terminal one). 

 Some of these leafits are sharply lobed, all are deeply toothed, and each 

 tooth bears one long and very prominent, awl-like spine or bristle. 



A. a. tripinnatum — trip-in-na'-tum (thrice divided to the midrib), 

 Moore. 



This beautiful variety, originally found in a wild state in Cornwall, is so 

 distinct in general appearance that, since its discovery, nearly every writer 

 on British Ferns specially mentions it. It is described in Moore's " Nature 

 Printed Ferns," and figured on t. 13b, also in his " Handbook of British 

 Ferns," p. 90. Lowe, in his splendid work on " Our Native Ferns," not 

 only describes it, but gives a coloured illustration of it ; he also illus- 

 trates it in his "Natural History of British and Exotic Ferns," vi., t. 24, 

 p. 70. The handsome fronds, of a vivid green colour and long-triangular 

 shape, are from 1ft. to l£ft. long, 4in. to 6in. broad, and have their stipes 

 (stalks) and rachis (stalk of the leafy portion) densely covered with scales 

 of a light brown colour. Their habit is also peculiar, as they rise 

 perpendicularly, thus forming a plant of a narrow " shuttlecock " appearance. 

 The pinna? (leaflets), 2in. to 3in. long, incline or twist a little out of the 

 flat surface of the frond, and lie nearly horizontally one above another, like 

 so many steps of a ladder ; and, being crowded together, when a frond 

 is pressed flat for preservation, the pinna? overlap each other. The pinnules 



3 l 



