ASPIDIUM FILIX MAS. 
This species of Fern is the OviKvTTsph of Dioscorides ; it is a 
native of Britain, and is found in great abundance about the borders 
of woods, rivulets, and in stony rocky places, flowering in June and 
July.* This species of fern (with others of the same family) was 
ranked by Linnaeus under the genus Polypodium, or Polypody tribe of 
plants; but modern botanists have separated the shitld-fern from 
the Polypody, and formed a distinct genus of the shield-fern under 
the generic title Aspidium.f 
The root is perennial, large, long, firm, and covered with thick 
brown imbricated scales, and furnished with numerous long fibres; 
the general leaves are pinnate, large, from one to four feet in length, 
lance-shaped, broader in the middle and gradually decreasing to each 
extremity, terminating above in an acute point ; the pailial or second 
leaves are from fifteen to twenty pair, remote on the lower part, gra- 
dually approaching nearer as they advance upwards, and runuing 
together at the top ; the pinnae are from seven to fifteen pair, which 
are largest at the bottom, and gradually decrease towards the top, 
where they unite in a point, they are of an oval form, and some- 
what crenate at the upper extremity; the seed vessels are placed 
in two rows on the back of the pinnae or lobes, in number from three! 
to six, and covered with a pellicle ; they are at first white, and after- 
wards change to a black or ash colour ; when the seeds are ripe, the 
pellicle bursts, and after the discharge of the seeds, the vessels be- 
come brown and appear as if covered with dust.J 
Sensible Properties. The root of fern when chewed, is 
somewhat sweet and mucilaginous, followed by a slight bitter astrin- 
gent taste. It has scarcely any smell ; when dried and powdered it 
is of a reddish brown colour. 
The root has been lately analysed by M. Mirca, who found it to 
contain gelatine, which was soluble both in water and alcohol ; 
tannin, starch, uncrystallizable sugar, subcarbonate, sulphate and 
hydrochlorate of potass, carbonate and phosphate of lime, oxide of 
iron, silex and alumine.§ 
* Of the Genus Aspidium twenty-eiglit species are known, of which, fifteen are 
indigenous to Britain, the others natives of the East and West Indies, North America 
and Madeira. — Ed. 
•f- By mistake the generic name Polypodium was pat on onr drawing, and the error 
discovered too late to rectify. — Ed. 
X A diagonal incision of the lower or black part of the stalk of this Fern, presents 
the appearance of the spread eagle of heraldry. 
§ Ann. de Ghim. xxvi. 219. 
