172 
ASPIDIACE^. 
apex of the frond, but owing to a certain convexity, which 
every division of the frond in some degree possesses, its point 
is bent downwards, and very frequently passes below and beyond 
the midrib of the preceding pinna ; the double series of these en- 
larged pinnules, often amounting to more than twenty, has a very 
striking appearance : all the pinnules have a sharp spine at their 
extremity, and several lesser spines at their edges, and each of 
the enlarged superior pinnules is slightly auricled at its outer 
margin near the base, and the auricle has a very strong and 
distinct spine towards the base of the frond ; this character ex- 
tends to several of the other pinnules which most nearly approach 
the stem, and these are generally placed on short foot-stalks, 
whereas all the others are decurrent or united at the base ; the di- 
rection which they assume, observable particularly in the inferior 
pinnules of each pinna, forms an acute angle with the midrib 
of the pinna. The seed is confined to the upper portion of the 
frond ; and in its circular involucre attached by a central cord ; 
in its circular clusters of capsules occasionally confluent, but 
generally separate ; and in the distribution of the veins, T find no 
characters distinct from those which I have afready figured as 
characteristic of the preceding species. 
