ASPIDIUM. 



469 



(leafits) provided with aristate (awned) teeth. The weak, straw-coloured 

 rachis (stalk of the leafy portion of the frond) is densely scaly throughout. 

 The sori (spore masses) fill up nearly the whole breadth of the pinnules 

 between the edge and the midrib. Fig. 71 is reduced from Col. Beddome's 

 "Ferns of British India," by the kind permission of the author.— Hooker, 

 Species Filicum, iv., p. 22, t. 223. Beddome, Ferns of British India, t. 34. 



A. proliferum— pro-lif'-er-um (bulbil-bearing), 



Brown. d 

 An Australian form of A. aculeatum, bearing |§ t 



one or sometimes two young plants at the end 

 of its fronds. This name is also applied to 

 a variety of A. angular e. 



A. pumilum — p.u'-mil-um (small). A variety 

 of A. angular e. 



A. (Polystichum) pungens— Pol-ys'-tich- 

 um ; pun'-gens (pricking), Kaulfuss. 

 This very pretty, greenhouse species, native 

 of the Cape Colony and Natal, is distinguished 

 from all other kinds closely allied to A. aculeatum 

 principally by the wide- creeping nature of the 

 underground rhizome (prostrate stem), from which 

 its somewhat leathery fronds, 2ft. to 3ft. long by 



9in. to lOin. broad, and borne on slightly scaly stalks 1ft. long, are abundantly 

 produced. The fronds are spear-shaped, bipinnate (twice divided to the 

 midrib), and furnished with numerous pinna; (leaflets) set somewhat far apart 

 and subdivided into pinnules (leafits) that are deeply toothed and show on 

 their edge numerous teeth of a stiff, awned nature. The sori (spore masses) 

 are disposed principally in two rows and nearer the midrib than the edge. 

 This species is proliferous, being usually provided at the end of its fronds 

 with a solitary bulbil that develops into a perfect plant.— Hooker, Synopsis 

 Filicum, p. 252. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, i., p. 127. Lowe, 

 Ferns British and Exotic, vi., t. 8. 



Fig. 71. Aspidium Prescottianum 

 (i nat. size). 



