216 
ASPIDIACE^:, 
Lastk^ea multiflora, Newman. 
Aspidium dilatatum, spinulosum and dumetorum^ Smith. 
Aspidium spinulosum^ Hooker. 
I BELIEVE this fern to be universally distributed throughout 
the British Islands: it grows luxuriantly in moist woods, delight- 
ing in vegetable mould, and attains a great size on warm, shel- 
tered hedge-banks, particularly if accompanied by a ditch. I 
refrain from stating that under an altered and diminished form 
it ascends our highest mountains, since I consider it possible, 
that what is supposed a mountain form of the present plant, may 
eventually prove specifically distinct. 
This fern is so imperfectly known that I am unable to give its 
European range, but I believe it to be common on the continent. 
I have received no corresponding form from my friends in the 
United States. 
There is no figure to which I can with confidence refer as re- 
presenting this species. 
It may appear somewhat strange that I should be unable to 
find more than one intelligible description of this common plant, 
yet such is the case ; and I adopt Both’s name of muUiJloray 
not because it has the claim of priority, which is however pro- 
bably the case, but because I cannot make it out to be either 
the original Polypodium spinulosum, as supposed by Will- 
denow,^ Hooker,f and many other authors ; the Polypodium 
dilatatum of Hoffinann, as supposed by Smith,! Wahlenberg,§ 
and many others ; or the Polypodium cristatum of Linneus, 
as supposed by Bolton, || Withering,1[ &c. : nor do I believe 
that sufficient information will ever be gleaned from either 
Muller’s or Hoffmann’s description, to settle the point satisfac- 
torily in favour of either, and the Linnean name of cristatum, 
for reasons already given, I have assigned to a very different 
species. Roth’s description, as cited below,*^ is too clear and 
Sp. Plant. V. 262. f Brit. Flor. 440. j Eng. Flor. iv. 280. 
§ Wahl. FI. Lap. 232. jj Bolt. Fil. 42. ^ Arr. Brit. PI. iii. 778. 
Polystichum ynultijlorum. P. frondibus supradecompositis ; foliolis ovato 
ohlongis, inciso-serratis ; serratiiris spinulosis, stipite paleaceo. Frondes hipe- 
