586 
CVIII. POLYPODIACEiE. 
\_Aspidium. 
marshes, Notts; Madeley and Newcastle-under-Lyne, Staffordshire; 
Wybunbury bog, Cheshire. — 0 . Usually along with a. ; also at Wy- 
mondham, Norfolk. — 7. Marshy places and damp woods; notun- 
common In the south of England, more rare in the middle and north. 
Very rare in Ireland and Scotland. 7 /.. 8. — Rhizome decumbent 
or slightly creeping. Frond without pubescence or glands. Between 
var. a. and 7. there is so wide a difference in general appearance, that 
the latter has always appeared to us to be naturally more allied to 
A. dilatutum, with which therefore in former editions we have united 
it ; the discovery however of the var. uliginosum growing along with 
a., and precisely intermediate between a. and 7. indicates that all the 
above form probably only one species. As it is however the opinion 
of others, who have bad more opportunities of studying these when 
recent, that the above three are more closely linked together than 
any of them are with A. dilatatum, we have at present deferred to it, 
availing ourselves of the artificial distinction, chiefly to be observed 
in the living plant, afforded by the scales and involucre. 
11. A. dilatutum Sw. (broad prickly-toothed S.) ; fronds 
drooping bi-tripinnate when young usually with stalked glands 
beneath, pinnules oblong distinct inciso-pinnatifid convex 
above or below, segments spinuloso- serrate, involucre toothed 
or glandular on the margin soon recurved and evanescent, 
scales of the stipes lanceolate much acuminate. — a. multi- 
Jlorum ; fronds usually ovate rarely linear, pinnules convex 
above, involucre usually ciliate with stalked glands, scales 
entire or fimbriate usually thicker and darker-coloured along 
the middle. E. B. t. 1461. Lastrea Presl. A. spinulosum 
Willd. A. dumetorum Sin. Polystichum multiflorum Roth. 
Lastrea Neicm. p. 215, 222, 223. Lophodium Newm. ed. 3, 
p. 147, 153. L. collinum Newm. ed. 3, p. 145. L. glandulosum 
Newm. ed. 3 (fronds more glandulose beneath). — ji.recurvum ; 
fronds triangular-ovate, pinnules concave above, involucre with 
a few minute teeth or subsessile glands along the margin, scales 
uniform in colour usually divided into a few narrow laciniae 
sometimes only fimbriate. A. spinulosum Sm. : E. B. t. 1460. 
A. recurvum Bree. Lastrea Newm. p. 225. Lastrea Foenisecii 
Wats. Lophodium Newm. ed. 3, p. 135. 
Moist woods, moors, and shady and rocky places. — a. Every- 
where from the sea-shore to near the summits of the highest moun- 
tains. — 0 Chiefly in mountainous districts; Cornwall, Sussex, 
Devon, Hereford, Cumberland, &c. Ireland, very common. In 
Scotland principally in the West Highlands and Arran. . 8, 9. 
— We can scarcely indicate any character hy which this may be 
known from the last except the. acuminate scales. To distinguish 0. 
from a. is still more difficult, if not quite impossible in the her- 
barium ; in a. the involucre has sometimes only sessile glands, some- 
times cilias without glands, so that it is impossible to distinguish it 
at all times from that of 0.; nor are the scales on the stipes to be 
relied on, for on both varieties these are sometimes fimbriate. The 
