WILLDENOW’S FERN. 
175 
howevei’, from the constant occurrence of plants intermediate in 
habit, texture, figure and cutting, that the difficulty has arisen. 
Sir J. E. Smith has thought to solve this difficulty, by consider- 
ing those forms which belong to neither species as constituting 
a species distinct from either. I proceed to give his descriptions. 
Aspidium aculeatum, Root tufted, large. Fronds numer- 
ous, spreading in a circle, each rather smaller than those of A. 
Filix-mas, of a dark blueish green, paler beneath, lanceolate, 
tapering to a point, firm and somewhat rigid, elegantly, regular- 
ly, and closely twice pinnate, with a considerable very scaly 
stalk ; the midrib, and partial ribs also, being clothed with nar- 
rower scales, sometimes occurring still narrower, like hairs, on 
the backs of the leaflets. Leaves alternate, close together, li- 
near-lanceolate, taper-pointed. Leaflets numerous, alternate, 
distinctly though rather shortly stalked, ovate inclining to lunate, 
with an oblique, acute, tapering point ; the serratures few and 
unequal, likewise taper-pointed, the lowermost of which, at the 
upper edge, forms more or less of a lobe, especially in the low- 
est leaflet, which is rather bigger than the rest. Masses smaller 
and more remote than in the two last [A, Filix-mas and crista- 
Cover orbicular, without a notch, flat, with a central 
protuberance when young.”^ 
Aspidium angulare. “ Softer and more delicate in texture, as 
well as more shaggy, than the last. The leaflets are smaller, 
more numerous, blunter, and rounded at the extremity, though 
tipped with a soft bristly point, and each of them, even to the 
smallest, has a broad conspicuous lobe, at the base of the upper 
margin ; the lowest of all, at the upper edge of each main leaf, 
is half as long again as its next neighbour, more strongly serra- 
ted, and in its lower part generally pinnatifid. All the lobes and 
serratures end in soft bristly points. Stalk, and principal rib, 
densely covered with scales, which are narrower in proportion as 
they are higher up, those on the partial ribs or on the leaflets 
occasionally, being almost capillary. Masses numerous and 
crowded. Cover orbicular, for the most part entire, with a cen- 
tral depression. The outline of the whole frond is rather broader 
* Eng’. FI or. iv. 277. 
